Edwards Wins the Gonzales Primary (David Corn of The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 03/13/2007 @ 2:54pm
Edwards Wins the Gonzales Primary

Former Senator John Edwards wins. He's the first of the leading Democratic presidential candidates to call for the head of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on a stick--that is, for the A.G. to resign over the still-expanding U.S. attorney scandal. After news stories appeared on Tuesday reporting White House involvement in the recent firings of federal prosecutors (including those who were unresponsive to Republican pressure to investigate Democrats), Edwards released this statement:

Today's news is only the latest and most disturbing sign of the politicization of justice under President Bush. From the abuse of investigative authority under the Patriot Act to the unconstitutional imprisonment of the Guantanamo Bay detainees and illegal torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Bagram Air Force Base, this president has consistently shown contempt for the rule of law.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales betrayed his public trust by playing politics when his job is to enforce and uphold the law. By violating that trust, he's done a great disservice to his office. If White House officials ordered this purge, he should have refused them. If they insisted, he should have resigned in protest. Attorney General Gonzales should certainly resign now.

Edwards left current Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the dust. Earlier in the day, HRC's office put out a statement in which she called for more answers--from President Bush: .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=174879

[BOSSHOG]

1. All of these wacky calls for accountability

Calling for a republican administration to be held accountable. An administration that pledged to be the most pure and sacred administration ever has turned out to be the most corrupt and downright incompetent bunch of stooges ever. What happened? It must be Clinton's fault.

[madinmaryland]

3. Ah yes. The all powerful Clenis strikes again!

[saltpoint]

2. Pleased to see John Edwards call for Abu's departure, and don't want

to subtract from the importance of Democrats lining up behind the growing dissatisfaction with the DoJ.

When you are the head of an administration that makes John Mitchell look halfway decent, you are the pits.

Bush is the top guy and as usual, he's nowhere to be found on any of this. Category 3 hurricane along the Gulf Coast; black mold and rodents at Walter Reed -- doesn't even matter the topic, Bush is awol.

Of course that's his signature behavior. National guard duty? Absent without leave. Soldiers need armor in Iraq? Too busy forcing US attorneys out of office; can't be bothered. FBI breaking the law with unwarranted wiretaps? "We'll look into it."

Hells bells, let's get these people out of there right now. Draft articles of impeachment and let's go. Bernie Sanders, last fall, said impeachment proceedings would be difficult at best. I respect Sanders' perspective; he's one of the most independent members of Congress ever. But I would love to hear his assessment as of this afternoon.

[Superman Returns]

4. Oh please, what else could he do?

He's not in the Senate. He has no choice but to try to get the most media attention and the most liberal support. I'm glad Edwards is coming out strong but he's certainly no "leader" when he has no day job to actually weigh him down.

[venable]

7. so what you're saying is the other candidates would have done same?

but they are too busy legislating to put out a statment on DoJ?

they are candidates, all of them. what they say matters, no matter where they are saying it from.

[Czolgosz]

5. K & R

[Catchawave]

6. Update:

The article was just updated to include:

UPDATE: This just in from ABC News: "In an exclusive interview to air Wednesday morning, March 14, on "Good Morning America," Sen. Hillary Clinton ☼, D-N.Y., the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, for the first time called for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales." HRC wasn't going to let Edwards enjoy his first-to-call-on-Gonzales-to-resign status for very long.

:evilgrin:

[Connie_Corleone]

8. Edwards' calls "FIRSTIES!!" NANANANANANA!!

So now it's a contest on who issues the fastest press release? Well, I guess if you're not busy in the Senate most of the day it's easy to call firsties.

[Cha]

9. Good! Maybe they'll

jump over each other to be the first to call for the next bushcrook's resignation.