Will Bush order Gonzales to fire Fitzgerald as heat gets turned up?

[Imagevision]

As it did with the special prosecutor in Nixon/Watergate?

[Gman]

1. Good question

and yes, he most likely will if Fitzgerald gets too close. Another Saturday Night Massacre by a Republican president straining desperately to hold on to his presidency and his legacy.

[Patty Diana]

7. Nixon pulled that shit___it didn't fly then and it won't fly now!!!!!

[Gman]

16. The next question should be

will Gonzales do it and how far down the food chain will it go until a Robert Bork is found to fire Fitzgerald? My guess it it won't go past Gonzales. 1973 was a time when there really were Republicans with integrity and honor.

[cally]

20. Robert Bork....wow...I didn't know he was involved in watergate

Here's what I found:

Robert H. Bork (1927 - )


Robert Bork was enjoying his job as President Nixon’s solicitor general. New to Washington, D. C., the University of Chicago Law School graduate and Yale professor had only recently been appointed to his post. On Saturday, October 20, 1973, Bork was to receive his baptism into the no-holds-barred ring of Washington politics. That evening word was passed that Nixon was angry. Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox had rejected the president’s order to rescind the subpoena for White House tape recordings. Soon an order arrived from the president. Attorney General Elliot Richardson was to fire Cox. Troubled by what he saw as interference in an ongoing investigation that the president had promised to leave unfettered, Richardson refused the order and resigned. His subordinate, William Ruckelshaus, followed suit and quit rather than fire Cox. Bork, with no one behind him to whom the office could fall, assumed the role of acting Attorney General and obeyed the president’s order to fire Cox. He did so with the president’s assurance that the investigation would continue. “It is my expectation that the Department of Justice will continue with full vigor the investigations and prosecutions that had been entrusted to the Watergate special prosecution force,” Nixon wrote in his instructions to Bork. The deluge of anger that poured forth from lawmakers and the public over the event, dubbed the “Saturday Night Massacre”, underscored their lack of confidence in that assurance. Soon, another special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, was named, the investigation proceeded, and Nixon turned over the tapes. Bork continued to serve as solicitor general until 1977.

http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/museum/exhibits/watergate_files/content.php?section=3&page=b&person=5


On edit: found the info myself and included it here.

[Gman]

22. But Bork could also have refused and, if he desired,, resigned

if he had any integrity. Of course Bork has no integrity so he fired Cox. He was later rewarded with his train-wreck-fated SCOTUS nomination.

[babylonsister]

2. Could he legally do that? I would imagine some

powerful justification would be necessary and where's Georgie gonna find that?

[Goldmund]

3. He can try

The only thing is, it isn't just "we the people" who are interested in this investigation's outcome -- it is also the CIA, this time. And them are powerful buggers.

[wli]

4. which is why Negroponte and Goss are purging them now

[kevsand]

6. I'm not sure that will help them.

In fact, it may make things worse for Bush. I suspect there's an institutional memory that a couple of outsiders will never root out entirely. Couple that with resentment over the attempt, and I'm guessing there will still be plenty of spooks on the inside willing to cooperate with the people let go, in order to stick it to the bad guys. Do you really think that a couple of MBAs at the top will be able to prevent that?

[wli]

17. MBA's? Try death squad leaders.

[kevsand]

18. Gave the orders, yeah.

But still paper pushers. Bureaucrats. Not agents or operatives. Drop either one of em down in a real world field op and they're DOA. Do you honestly think that either Goss or Negroponte really has a clue what's happening down in the belly of the beast? The career spooks can run rings around them, if they really want to.

[wli]

19. granted

Still, they're completely unprincipled.

[The Night Owl]

5. We already have a model to predict what Bush will do if Rove gets indicted

What did Bush 41 do after the Iran-Contra hearings? He issued pardons. Bush will do the same if Fitzgerald indicts Rove or other White House honchos. Sure, the stain of the indictment will still be there, but Bushbots won't care... They will simply think that Rove did the right thing even though he broke the law.

[Booster]

8. And then they will run Jeb for president and the sheep/Diebold

will elect him. We're doomed as long as we have Diebold machines in place.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. We have to kill

the machines.

http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[msongs]

14. the democratic party inc. does NOT share this vision, just a few...

the few that speak up are concerned with election fraud via evoting, but the democratic party as an organization is not talking much or doing much to solve the diebold problem...that I can see.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[Imagevision]

10. Run Jeb? yah! and allow Rove to run the show again -- don't think so

The timing is perfect for discrediting Bush with 06 elections to follow, I'm sure Iraq will be the success we've heard shrub boast about by then.

Rove and DSM, that'll do, it's just a matter of time before Bush will be impeached. They impeach Clinton for lying about a BJ.? c'mon!!

[Imagevision]

11. Nixon Forces Firing of Cox; Richardson, Ruckelshaus Quit

In the most traumatic government upheaval of the Watergate crisis, President Nixon yesterday discharged Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and accepted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/102173-2.htm

[Imagevision]

12. President Nixon fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in Watergate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/...

[wallwriter]

13. Tooo much Watergate parallel. A practical admission of guilt.

[Catrina]

15. I agree but

they could declare a national emergency ~ halt all investigations for national security reasons etc., and have that last until after the 2006 elections. Anything they intend to do will have to happen while they still have control of Congress and the Senate.

I cannot imagine them sitting back and allowing Scooter Libby or Cheney (the most likely suspects, imo) be indicted. However, their arrogance may have led to believe, two years ago, that this investigation would never get this far. It may be too late for them to do anything ~

www.talknation.org
www.pinsforpatriots.com

[Zen Democrat]

21. Didn't Gonzalez have to testify? It would be a HUGE scandal and

a conflict of interest of Gonzalez fired the prosecutor.

I happen to think this is why Bush was floating Gonzalez' name to the Supreme Court. If he could get Gonzalez out of the way, he could appoint a new AG who would be clear to fire Fitzgerald.

But, now ... it will never happen. Talk about SHITSTORMS!!! The Saturday Night Massacre was the true beginning of Nixon's impeachment, which he only escaped by resigning.

Bush is now looking at 2006 mid-term elections. Were he to have Fitzgerald fired, I have no doubt whatsoever that the Republicans would be thrown out and Bush subsequently impeached.

I think he's in big trouble ... and he knows it. And Karl Rove knows it. And the media knows it. And the American people know it.

[rumpel]

23. I don't think he can.