Letters to the Editor
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@ Ondolette
Now that he's resigned, Alberto Gonzales can be investigated and indicted by a grand jury, and then prosecuted.
By the Dubya DoJ?!?!? Fat chance.
We got Mitchell, but that was with a special prosecutor, IIRC.
Cheers,
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@ bebop, important update
Mr. Gonzales just loved GWB and boasted his children got to pet Barney and romp on the White House (now a white big pig-feed-bucket) lawn.
I believe bebop has just named the next AG. Imagine Leahy's committee questioning Barney. They'll get nowhere.
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@orson...why now? That's easy
orson asks:
But WHY?
So that's Rove and Gonzales out. Why? It obviously has nothing to do with "being a distraction." Something big is about to hit the fan, either yet another scandal or we'll be bombing Iran soon and they wanted to clear the decks of the ballast first.
-- Orson
**********
That one's easy, imho. I would not *totally* discount the importuning of big-wigs in the GOP. I think Bush and Cheney had to do something. It's hard enough for them to figure out a way to seem to soften on the Iraq war without actually changing anything.
Rove and Gonzalez have been targets of more timid GOPers for a long time now.
But, even more, I suggest that Bush and Cheney finally decided to do something to mitigate some of the damage, and August is the usual time to do this sort of thing, when no-one's home, no-one's paying attention. The week before labor-day is the deadest week in the entire political calendar. They'd probably have had Rove and Gonzalez both leave this week, but that would have looked too obvious, even for them.
So, Rove goes early. Gonzalez goes at a time when almost no-one in the Base--nor anyone else--is paying any attention. By the time everyone wakes up, next week, it'll be old news. Hardly worth mentioning. Which is the idea.
Typical of these guys. They're operators. Have been for their entire careers. When *else* would that throw over surplus baggage? This is absolutely the best time for it, if yer gonna do it at all.
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@Ondelette
@Kitt
How useful or not that statement is would all depend on one's definition of "the middle of the road"--Kitt.
All the way to the right, on the other side of the breakdown lane, across the guard rail, up under the bridge girders.
-- ondelette
Yep. It's not possible to exaggerate Bush's definition. He proved that again in his short conference as he stood in front of his big helicopter toy. If he had just settled for making a lot of BS statements about what a swell guy he thinks Gonzo is, that would have been dopey sounding but at least 'middle of the road' material. But, nope. He had to drive all the way over to where you described by saying this:
"It's sad that we live in a time that a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impedid [sic] from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political purpose."--G Bush
I have no words other than foul ones to describe my thoughts about the person quoted above and his continued petulance.
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@ ElephantDung
I am about as exorcised [sic] about Gonzalez leaving as I was about Harreit Miers' SCOTUS nomination being withdrawn. Which is to say, "Yesssss!"
IOW, you're still possessed by the Devil. Colour me surprised.
Cheers,
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Che Pasa
what you think is more effective than the so-far ineffective calls, letters, emails, blogging and so forth.
While I certainly agree that the above tactics have not resorted in the sort of dramatic responses from the Democratic leadership we'd all like to see, I don't think it fair to label these efforts totally ineffective. If that is so, then why (for example) do O'Hanlon, Zelikow and others feel the need to address Glenn directly in attempts at refutation? My feeling is that they do so because they fear that Glenn's exposure of their methods will result in changes to their effectiveness.
I think there is a place for all the methods of protest mentioned, and I think they have degrees of impact that largely depend upon the ways that individual members of Congress interact with, or pay attention to, the public.
The larger point that Glenn, and many others here stress, is that change is an incremental creature and it does not happen overnight, but it does happen. And any means used to implement it is a means that has not been wasted. We each need to contribute in whatever way we can, and we need to keep at it, until we see the changes that we seek happen.
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Selise: re: déjà vu all over again
Yes, and I imagine this discussion will keep cropping up again and again. It's almost a fundamental, as it were.
The truth is, from my perspective, there is a relatively small constituency for those things Glenn is most interested in: Law, the Constitution, Good Government by Honest Politicians, things like that. Consequently, we're not going to see much marching and pot banging (let alone useless fist pumping) over those issues. It's just not going to happen.
What is getting more and more people into a lather, though, is the fecklessness and apparent spinelessness of Our Capitulation Congress -- especially over the Iraq debacle. That, and the early indications of an economic catastrophe just around the corner that Our Feckless Congress refuses to address.
As I think I pointed out here a couple of days ago, there are protest demonstrations and general strikes scheduled throughout September, pretty much every week. There will be many, many participants, though we may never hear about it on the teevee given our news media's disinterest in such icky things.
And yet something has got to penetrate the thick crystal bubble that surrounds the politico/media DC elites. So far, there's been an occasional scratching irritant by the great unwashed masses. Nothing has really moved them at all -- except for the yowlings of the wingnut mobs. Let's put it this way, nothing rational has moved them.
So. Maybe it will take something different.
Lots of folks are trying to figure out what.