WP: Time to Go Mr. Gonzales

[MountainLaurel]

I believe in accountability," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales proclaimed yesterday at a news conference that was a self-serving masterpiece of passive voice and unpersuasive platitudes. "Like every CEO of a major organization, I am responsible for what happens at the Department of Justice. I acknowledge that mistakes were made here. I accept that responsibility. And my pledge to the American people is to find out what went wrong here, to access accountability and to make improvements so that the mistakes that occurred in this instance do not occur again in the future."

Is there anyone left -- seriously, is there a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee -- who has confidence in Gonzales's capacity to fix this mess? Is there anyone who accepts Gonzales's CEO analogy -- and thinks that a sentient board of directors wouldn't have fired him long ago?

Let's assume Gonzales's good faith: that he truly is upset about what happened on his watch, just as he was upset last week about the FBI's cavalier mishandling of its authority to issue "national security letters," and wants to make things right.

snip

This is a man whose memory is so foggy that George W. Bush -- not exactly Mr. Detail -- has a sharper recollection of their conversations than the attorney general does. The president, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, told Gonzales that Republicans were complaining about prosecutors failing to aggressively pursue voter fraud. Gonzales doesn't recall the conversation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301509.html

[saltpoint]

1. Well we finally get a WP piece with some common sense and decency.

A flicker of hope. I'll take it.

Gonzales appears to me to be unprincipled, someone who is the exact opposite of a fair Attorney General.

He's an activist judge for the Right, for Bush, for Bush's inner circle.

And he's smart enough to know that the coming days are not going to be the best days of his life. I think he's out by Friday.

[AndyA]

2. Let's not pretend that Gonzalez was ever intended to be anything other than an operative

for the GOP's agenda.

Being forgetful, having low morals, ethics, and principles, all fall into the job description for this position under the Bush Administration.

Investigate. Impeach. Indict. Imprison. All of them.

[SusanaMontana41]

3. Marcus cuts Gonzo waaay too much slack to suit me

but even she concludes that he must go.

That would be a good start. But the Bush administration is a hydra. To slay the beast, more heads must roll.