... he praised the "100,000 dedicated public servants" working in the Justice Department

And the best thing that he can do is to resign and let them have an effective leader. I get the feeling Satan will skate to work before that happens. I also believe that if he does resign, Junior will manage to find someone even worse to replace him.

from Arlen Specter.

It is clear Gonzales has no intention of cooperating with Congress. Congress has every right to impeach a public official it feels is obstructing the public interest.

What are they waiting for? Impeach him. He would then be tried in the Senate, and if he continued to give such vacuous answers during the trial, removing him from office would be an easy vote. Who would vote against removing a public official from office who has so little regard for the public interest that he does not think he is answerable to the public?

The Bush administration is employing good electoral politics here: push the envelope past the extreme. They know the Democrats will not impeach any of them for anything -- the Democrats won't even block funding of anything for any reason. So just push the envelope further and further and: a) you are never held to account; and b) the Democratic base gets more and more demoralized each day.

We just don't get it -- questions are NOT to be asked of the Bush administration, but if someone has the temerity to ask any, answers are NOT to be expected. Ever.

Dubya et al. deflected questions during the Libby affair, saying (just as Gonzalez said today) that it wasn't proper to discuss ongoing legal matters. Then, once the legal matter is settled (e.g., after commutation of Libby's sentence following his felony conviction), it becomes "old news" not worth discussing.

It will ever be thus -- or at least, it will be until January 2009. Stonewalling has been honed to a fine art by this administration. Fascinating, isn't it, to watch great performance artists at work?

You mean the one at which Leahy mews and Specter glares? Goodness, pretty soon they might really get angry and stamp their feet, then we'll get the answers we need, right?

Really this is ridiculous behavior by adults, much less US Senators. Mr. Gonzales is not going to answer your questions boys. If he does answer he's going to lie - and lie badly at that. He has demonstrated this over and over and over again, and you have demonstrated that you are perfectly happy with it.

Clearly Mr.Bush's theory of a Unitary Executive is demonstrably (if not legally) correct as the Congress has ceded it's power and he is simply filling the vacuum.

Somebody has to after all, and why not him?

Specter is good at acting perturbed, but never does anything about it. I'm still PO'd about the way he let himself be bullied by (then) AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre when Specter had Whitacre by the balls over the BellSouth acquisition.

I used to like him, but sadly, he's become a waste of a perfectly good senate seat.

Hard to imagine that Rove et al don't see the upside of exposing the Democrats' impotence.

Oh, well, if he refuses to answer we'll just move on to other matters. Mr. Attorney General, how do you like your steaks? I like mine medium well. Pink on the inside...

It's just so comforting to know our Republican members of Congress are pressing so hard on the tough questions.

Specter is a tool as well as a fool. He provides cover by acting all indignant but then when push comes to shove, well, he just backs down. Typical.

These people have found the magic formula. Lying. Just flat out lie and when you're caught, lie some more. I mean what's the downside? They can't be fired or impeached. They don't give a rat's fat ass about what ANYBODY thinks. It's perfect. It's hopeless. It's the New Facist America. Now with bleach.

- Plenty of evidence of criminal behavior. (Perjury, Obstruction of justice, etc.)

- Plenty of public support.

- I bet there are plenty of willing Republican Senators to convict.

- Won't tie up much time.

- Will be very helpful in getting to the bottom of just about eveything the Bush Adminstration has been doing.

I see absolutely no downside to it.

Arlen Specter just sent his message to the Neo-Con establishment that he is still fully in their pocket. Gonzalez opened up the opportunity for the incisive follow up stating that litigation in the courts is the next step.

If Specter was sincere in his grandstanding, the followup would have been "And how is a constitutional government to survive if the executive branch block's Congressional access to litigation?"

Instead he cries uncle and moves along.

It sounds like Gonzales has gotten more of a Southern accent than he had during his confirmation hearing. Maybe he's stressed, or maybe they thought he'd be the folksy corrupt Attorney General. He should've worn a white three-piece suit and a bowtie.

Impeach. Impeach. Impeach. Impeach. One for Bush. One for Cheney. One for Gonzo. And one extra one, just in case the others don't stick.

Bush isn't claiming any new powers, just extending this policy from the military to the entire executive branch (with a possible extension--Don't Remember).

It truly is worth 1000 of the words he won't say. He looks like a perfectly typecast minor character in something like "The Sopranos," shify eyed, guilty looking, and rather thuggish.

I can see why the Democrats are a little cautious about impeachment of anyone, of course. They saw it blow up in the faces of the Republicans in '98. And they saw what happened to Bush in Iraq when he thought he could make a great show of American invincibility by, in the charming words of William Kristol, picking up a little country and throwing it against the wall. Gonzo may seem like an easy target, but who knows what Karl Rove still has in his slime-cannons? Still, they do have Gonzo dead to rights on perjury; he clearly lied under oath to Congress, and unlike Bill Clinton, he lied about a matter directly related to his official duties. I think they should go for it.