Did someone say "batting a thousand"?

I KNEW Bush would go for a recess appointment. Everyone, please welcome Mike "Nosferatu" Chertoff!

A-GONE!

You did a heck of a job, Gonzie.

Watching Abu's resignation, I don't think I've ever seen anyone make such a sprightly sprint out of the room away from reporters.

Should President Bush replace Alberto Gonzales, who has politicized the Department of Justice, with Michael Chertoff, who has politicized Homeland Security?

So who would be replacement at Homeland Security?

Thank goodness. Another incompetent hack, unable to do his job without Karl Rove holding his hand, is gone.

Now he can be prosecuted without difficulty.

"I KNEW Bush would go for a recess appointment. Everyone, please welcome Mike "Nosferatu" Chertoff!"

What are you talking about? There has been no recess appointment. I don't believe there will be, since Bush has a deal with Harry Reid.

Albert Gonzales: "My incompetence at covering up my own multiple felonies has become a distraction to the president's criminal enterprise. These distractions are also making it impossible for the president and I to effectively benefit from the intimate activities that have formed the cornerstone of our relationship."

I was totally blindsided by this. I figured that Bush would keep him on just to draw fire and stymie congressional oversight. The new guy's confirmation hearings are going to be interesting.

I can't explain it nor have I any data but I have a feeling it will be Chertoff.

Oh! And we're all gonna die in a terrah attack!!
Now pass the Maalox.

Is there room for improvement at Justice? With 20-20 hindsight can we spot areas in which we could have done even better? Is there someone who could bring to the table known knowns, master known unknowns, and identify unknown unknowns? Get thee behind him, Henny Pennys. The Master returneth.

Alberto Gonzales: first latino AG.

Alberto Gonzales: first latino AG forced to resign as the result of humiliating scandal and lawlessness.

Alberto Gonzales: a disgrace to all American latinos.

I just listened to the Dianne Rehm show (WAMU-DC, http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/) on the Gonzales resignation. They had a NYT reporter who spouted tepid CW, Republican operative Lee Casey who said exactly what you would expect, and honest conservative Bruce Fein who brought the only sanity to the discussion (he was great, btw). For gawd's sake, this is NPR! I sent them this email:

"I'm listening to your show today in disbelief. The only person who is discussing the Gonzales situation with any honesty is Bruce Fein. Lee Casey is simply ridiculous with his line that there is no evidence of wrongdoing. There is vast and objective written evidence of wrong doing on multiple fronts. The problem is that the Bush Administration is playing rope-a-dope and refusing to cooperate with any investigations - and all trails have led to the White House. Bruce Fein has called repeatedly for impeachment of both Bush and Cheney due to their fundamental disrespect for the rule of law and the balance of powers required by the Constitution. Their behavior on the DOJ investigations is nearly exhibit A.

There were a number of experts on this issue you could have invited to participate in this discussion. For example, Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo was widely credited in the traditional media for their investigations of the attorney firings that took the issue out of the shadows. He would have been a much more reasonable choice than the NYT reporter who seems pretty uninformed on the substance."

This is inexcuseable. I would suggest that perhaps a letter writing campaign (respectful, of course) to WAMU and Dianne is in order.

What a disgrace it was that this man was ever confirmed in the first place.

Frankly, confirmation hearings for Gonzales' replacement are going to require a lot more preparation on the part of Senate Judiciary Committee members than his own confirmation hearings in 2005, or the hearings on the US Attorney firings. The next Attorney General is going to have to discuss how he plans to rebuild a department the senior management of which is mostly gone, for one thing.

I was expecting him to get to the podium at 10:30 AM ET and say, "I don't remember why I'm a this podium".

I doubt there will be a recess appointment. I expect that Bush feels that he can live with Paul Clement, acting AG, continuing in that role until the end.

Therefore, any Bush nominee for "permanent" AG will be better FOR BUSH than Clement.

yes, Alberto Gonzales, the AG who managed to make me nostagic for John Ashcroft. Hard to imagine how anyone could be less suited for AG, but I'm sure Bush will find him or her. Bushco still can't afford to let the light shine on their Justice Department shenanigans.

The next Attorney General is going to have to discuss how he plans to rebuild...

Well then Chertoff is our man. After all, he displayed such leadership in rebuilding New Orleans... oh wait.

Alberto Gonzales: a disgrace to all American humans.

So perhaps my lightning rod theory is accurate after all. Politically, the most rationale way out of messes like the DOJ-US Atty scandal would be to leave a plausibly responsible figure in a high profile position as long as possible. Everyone screams for their removal. Before long, the whole incident turns to being *all about* their removal. At just about the breaking point, they're pulled. Then, when everyone is sick of the stone-walling and evasions and the whole story itself, the President and his minions can say that now it's time to move on. Any additional inquiries look petty and political and the trail of corruption leading to WH would go cold. Brownie, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, all could plausibly have been used this way. However, this President's stubbornness and messianic view of his mission caused me to wonder whether this politically optimal strategy would be used or not. (Rumsfeld, for instance, should have resigned far before he did.) Looks like cooler heads prevailed, but they should not be allowed to succeed. Get the gwb43 emails, and get the WH staff talking about the conversations and emails to which no plausible claim of privilege attaches.

alberto gonzales is a disgrace
to the human race

he's a disgrace
to the subhuman race

Chertie will be the distractor, like Meyers was for the SCOTUS appt.

The real AG appt. will be John Yoo.

Nah - Whispers must have at least one teensy thing wrong - Only one who can "bat a thousand" - I await the day at Cooperstown, when..........

But, although fine news about Gonzo, how will this affect the Stasis of our government? As long as the Honeckerites are still in power, all will be the same in our new version of the GDR, i.e., George's Democratic Republic, of which like it's predecessor, was neither Democratic, nor a Republic.

Yoo who? (Sorry)

My first thought when I heard this was: why now - that is, why first thing Monday morning, when usually this stuff happens late on a Friday? What's coming up this week that they would want to drown out or obscure with this news? I hope Josh and others watch things very very carefully this week....

What are you talking about? There has been no recess appointment.

It was a prediction, not a news report.

I was expecting him to get to the podium at 10:30 AM ET and say, "I don't remember why I'm a this podium".

Outstanding!

Of course, the important thing to remember here is that this resignation follows directly on the heels of the Rove resignation.

You gotta believe the Bush WH is trying to pull itself out of lame duckery.

Good luck with that, Bushies. The only things working against you now are reality and memory.

**

I guess this stooge, this tool is gone, but what's really changed? The damage has been done, the dangerous policies enacted, the real actors still in place or safely escaped.

Re: Recess appointment.

I know that Bush mumbled something about 'confirmation by the Senate' this morning and I've seen posts elsewhere saying that Reid and Bush have a deal where there will be no recess appointment - so I'm posting a handy procedure by which you can determine the extent to which you can believe there will be no recess appointment.

1. Go out to your driveway.
2. Pick up your car and throw it.
3. Determine the distance you were able to throw your car. This is precisely how far you can trust Bush on not appointing a new AG.

Glad to help.

Well, there goes another part of the Bush firewall, and good riddance. As for the confirmation hearings, Leahy should be saying right now and loud that no member of the Administration should be put up nor should any defender of Gonzales because of the clear damage Gonzales did to DoJ needing to be fixed and no supporter of AG would have the credibility to do such a job. I make this point as a way to keep Orin Hatch from consideration seeing as he appears to have been a WH operative in sneaking what they wanted into various bills.

I'm with Stranger, Bush's lips were moving. Why wouldn't Bush do a recess appointment? Why else would he wait until the recess to have Gonzo quit?

The only card Reid holds is impeachment, did he threaten to actually play it?

If Bush doesn't do a recess appointment, he has a deal cut where his nominee is rubber stamped.

After what Bush pulled on the FISA bill, he is due a political payback. We can only dream.

Gosh, another nail in the coffin for Afirmative Action.

Who are all these racists that are bringing Affirmative Action into this? Gonzalez had been consistently at George W. Bush's side for over a decade. Why don't you see that, and not that he's a latino? What is wrong with you?

unless it's just a joke, in which case: keep your day job.

Recess appointment.

What else would the schoolkids in the White House do?! (seriously though, Recess appointment of Chertoff)

Not so much a joke, as sarcasm. But thanks for the advice.

As was said upthread, Bush either already has a deal with Reid to get someone confirmed,....... or he'll do a recess appointment.

A recess appointment will really stir things up, but how can Bush get any more unpopular? Then again, he put the "duh" in "W", so maybe he'll bull on ahead with someone who'll get carved up by the Senate.

More likely there's a deal with Reid.

Late this Monday morning the American people were devastated by the announcement of from the office of Attorney General. Tired of being the Capitol Hill pinata, Bush's Fredo left tail-between-legs after multiple hit attempts by congress. Not that Gonzales will be any safer from subpoenas in his personal version of the witness protection program...READ MORE at CrookedInc.Com

mhr: "**"

Wow, even more pithy than yesterday.

Ted: "What's coming up this week that they would want to drown out or obscure with this news? I hope Josh and others watch things very very carefully this week...."

This is an excellent question, particularly as the Friday evening before Labor Day weekend offers the perfect moment to release this news. He's been rotting on the vine for how long now, and they couldn't wait a few more days???

craigie,

Joke and/or sarcasm, so be it.

Gonzo wreaks of Affirmative Action - Look at his legal record with the DOJ - If this is what Harvard Law is made of, then, yes Affirmative Action has run amok.

He has been with Shrub, as a Day/Night Laborer since they rode around Texas in a pickup truck druming up support for the baseball Rangers. He has been a yes man hack ever since. To do Shrub's bidding was the reason he was place in our nation's highest law enforcement position. But, tell me how he could have made it through Harvard Law, without a hell of a push from the mis-use of the much needed Affirmative Action - This was a gross mis-use of AA.

Keep the zingers coming, craigie.

A good man. A dedicated public servant. A patriot. A sacrificial lamb to the liberal hordes.