Come on, people. You're playing in the big leagues.

Of course they are. And they know that Rule 1 in the D.C. leagues is you never pass up an opportunity to pretend that a radical right wing administration really has cuddly moderation under its skin just waiting to burst forth. The bonus from this gambit is when said cuddly moderation fails to show, it must be because those mean old congressional Dems are failing to compromise enough.

I get really sick of this predictable crap.

Yes indeed, everybody controversial involved with the Bush Adminstration has left. There's noooooooooooobody left who has had aaaaaaaany controversial influence or positions on anything of importance. Nobody at all.

Nobody.

Can't think of a single person left.

Actually, one does come to mind.

Two, in fact.

Right on, KD! Gonzales and Rove famously served "at the pleasure" of the President.

The fact that Gonzales's resignation is attributed to "political sentiment" rather than gross incompetence/poliiticization of the Justice Department is another sign that Bush doesn't think he has any relationships to mend. Bush believes that he has never made a mistake: Americans just don't give him enough credit for his brilliance (because he is so far ahead of all of us) or the media deliberately reports only the bad news.

Surely Reynolds and Gerstenzang were being ironic.

Btw, don't miss the lunar eclipse.

Just 3:45 hrs to go until totality.

I'm the divider!

Kevin, haven't you learned yet?

No matter what happens, it's good for Bush.

Silver lining. It's all a silver lining. The killing and mayhem, how is it good for Bush, politically? That's the question being asked by the Very Serious Thinkers.

28%.

This is like Slow Nixon.

old hat beats me to the punch: this is simply a standard trope that we've been hearing for years now. there is no such thing as bad news for george bush: everything is a positive for him. in fact, i have it on david broder's express word that he's due for a rebound any hour now....

According to the corporate press/media (and sometimes Hillary Clinton), no matter what happens, it will be good for Bush and good for the Republicans.

I am sure that David Broder is dusting off a new column claiming Bush is now "poised for a political comeback."

It is sad and unfortunate Gonzales was forced to leave by the political vendetta of liberals. The unfair and dishonest attacks by liberals made it impossible for Gonzales to do his job effectively. Because of this Gonzales resigned for the good of the DOJ. This politicalization of the DOJ by liberals is indefensible and will only hurt liberals because the American people will see through the transparent partisan attacks on the DOJ by Democrats.

But at the very least, the resignation will give Bush a fresh start as Democrats can no longer blame Gonzales for problems they have with conservatism. Hopefully President Bush will use this as an opportunity to appoint a strong conservative as the new Attorney General who forcefully defends the terrorist surveillance program and his powers as the head of the Unitary Executive and not buckle under to the threats of Democrats to politicize the Department of Justice.

Best wishes to Alberto Gonzales and his family.

Heh. I guess the Republicans that were also investigating Gonzales and happy to see him go were also participating in "transparent political attacks on the DoJ" right? Gee, could it possibly be that Congressional investigations were leading to the impeachment of the Attorney General, and so on up the line through Karl Rove, all the way up to the two guys sitting in the White House? Could it possibly be that the ELEVEN resignations from the DoJ since March of this year all have something to do with the polticization of the DoJ for partisan purposes in screwing with the voting rights of the American people?

Spin like Limbaugh all you want, it doesn't change the fact that Hatch Act violations -were- committed and that quite possibly there are even more serious charges that could be meted out by Patrick Leahy's Senate Judiciary Committee... which, btw, consists of both Democrats AND Republicans.

Frankly, I'd like to see Rove's Blackberry communications from 1999-2007 that went through those "unofficial" official servers. Hello, NSA???

Al: "It is sad and unfortunate Gonzales was forced to leave by the political vendetta of liberals."

Oh, those powerful wiberals. Did they scare widdle Al again! All they have to do is huff and puff for three years, and the mice pretend to squeak!

Al: "It is sad and unfortunate Gonzales was forced to leave by the political vendetta of liberals."

Al, you traitorous right-wing trollop, I do hope the RNC'S factored in the real inflation rate on your troll's stipend. Thirty pieces of silver don't go nearly as far as they used to.

Just noticed a particularly brilliant bit of Al-arity: "This politicalization of the DOJ by liberals is indefensible..."

The jokes just write themselves, folks -- or are written by jokes.

"The Texas mafia is leaving," ,/i>

The mafia is still there in the Whitehouse. AND cronyism continues.

I figure they were just watching Lord of the Rings while writing the column. Probably the scene with Wormtongue and King Theoden.

Predictable crap from the Bush dick-kisser Al. Al, we don't like perverts here. Take your skanky little dick kissing and go to the Repukeliscum convention, where dick kissing and child molestation is the order of the day.

Gonzales is a fascist. Having a fascist as AG is a bad idea. Thank god Gonzales is gone.

President Momma's Boy set the tone in his little speech where he blamed Gonzo's problems on political attacks from the bad Dems. Some uniter!

This Al guy has really drunk the kool-aid. "The politicization of the DOJ by liberals?" Ridiculous.

sounds more likely that the center of power will move to a ranch in Crawford... the invisible hand of capitolism (sic). even more "working vacations".

The office of the Attorney General issued a brief statement saying only that Mr. Gonzales wishes to return to Texas and spend more time with Karl Rove.

nomer www.altara.blogspot.com

Al, Who made the list and why?

Wonder what's happening with Rove's hand picked US attorney in Arkansas. Is he digging up dirt on Hillary?

As I see it the democrats had to demonize The replacement of the attorneys so that the indictments
to come next year could be called purely political.

Next year is going to be very interesting.

Yes, people speak and write, even above on this thread, about Gonzo being forced out due to his incompetence and/or gross politicalizaion of the DOJ - However, I must agree with Juan Coles's views this morning, that it is truly a shame that he was not forced out due to his trampling of our Constitution and the Geneva Convention over the use of torture.

Yeah, the Texas vanguard is leaving, but, the two biggest immigrants to Texas are still very much in charge. The S&M, B&D Honeckerites and their Stasi still rule.

The barbaric liberalss' constant shouting at the doors of power has led to the exit of one more man of unimaginable integrity, ethics and morality. They may have forced three of the greatest minds of this generation, Rove and Gonzales and Rumsfeld, to leave Washington, but sooner or later they will hear from these paragons of virtue. And it will not be pretty.

However, I must agree with Juan Coles's views this morning, that it is truly a shame that he was not forced out due to his trampling of our Constitution and the Geneva Convention over the use of torture.

It's also truly a shame that he was merely forced out of office when he should by rights have been arrested, tried, convicted and jailed for perjury, subornation of perjury, criminal conspiracy, racketeering, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, witness tampering, bribery, and a host of other felonies.

Yes, Stefan, very well stated - Reminds me of a line at the end of Front Page mentioning the imprisonment of the Cook County Sheriff - Said, he had been convicted of "malfeasance, misfeasance, and non-feasance" in office.

mmmmmm...arrest, trial, conviction and jailing of Gonzales...mmmmmmm.....

The Bush administration has consistently pushed this meme that all problems with regard to any issue stem from single individuals, not a problem with the system. Individual gone, problem gone, stop looking, Congress.

Look at Iraq. The Bush meme was that Saddam was the sole impediment to shining freedom and peace in Iraq. Saddam gone, problems gone was the working model. Parades in the streets and all that, utterly ignoring that Saddam didn't personally torture and murder tens or hundreds of thousands of people.

The Bushies tried playing the same meme with the DOJ scandals, insisting that any problems were the result of a few out-of-control individuals, rather than a planned and systematic program of, well, evil intent.

You can see the same attitude with the neocons and Israeli conservatives: if we just kill enough of the Palestinian leaders, end of problem, refusing to accept in any way that the problems are systemic and wide-ranging and have more to do with past and president Western and Arab/Islamic policies as they have to do with the inspiration of individual leaders.

This is the nature of people who operate devoid of any sense of public policy, being adherents instead to a hierarchy of personality cults that depend on faith and personal loyalty, rejecting any reliance on constitutional, legal, or social institutions or norms designed by the Founders and crafted by public policy experts from both sides of the aisle to serve the broad public interest, as each side sees it, instead of narrow personal interests.

Next year is going to be very interesting.

Why don't you hold your breath.

Hey,does anyone know whatever happenned to Karen Hughes? Is she with Cheney in his "undisclosed location"? Or,perhaps,in Crawford,Texas re-assembling the mafia returnees????

anonymous: "The Bush administration has consistently pushed this meme that all problems with regard to any issue stem from single individuals, not a problem with the system. Individual gone, problem gone"

A good point. You could add their initial response to Abu Ghraib to your list of examples, as well. I've noticed the same thing. It is a simple heuristic, and characteristic of a certain kind of conservative thinking. They worship the heroic cowboy who rides into town to clean up the mess caused by the evil gunslinger. (Interestingly, both the Reagans and the GWBush's complained about the messes left behind in the WH by their Democratic predecessors.) The cult of GWB is another manifestation (as well as the conservative claim that all criticism of GWB is personal, Irrational Bush Hatred syndrome. )

A corollary of that lack of system thinking is that it rejects planning ahead. It is a reactive mindset that prefers the excitement, the charge, of dealing with emerging chaos rather than having things go smoothly. They are always looking ahead, rather than considering how their previous bad judgments caused their current crisis. They just roll out their evil scapegoats to explain setbacks. Hence, Iraq.

One also finds it in the SCLM whose focus is always on this moment's human interest story. It's fragmented way of thinking, things don't connect.

Yes, this is a tremendous opportunity, provided that a couple of more administration officials, specifically the President and Vice-President decide to spend more time with their families.

The amazing thing is that out in talk-radio land, they're still pushing the line that "Clinton fired 93 US Attorneys! What's all the fuss about?"

This local radio host (Jordan Rich) who specializes in peddling the same crap as Rush, but in a more reasonable-sounding tone of voice, had on an expert who made the often-repeated but never-retained point that an incoming President always asks for the resignation of all US attorneys, that Bush did the same thing, and that what's unusual here is the firing of six of his own appointees for failing to toe the political line. Rich listened patiently, and made polite noises as if he was paying attention, but still ended the segment with "Yeah, but Clinton did it too!"

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Apply 2x4 to radio talk show host's head. Rinse. Repeat.

This politicalization of the DOJ by liberals is indefensible...

This is apparently one talking point actually being pushed by Ari Fleisher on Fox News.

[trolling deleted]

The liberal left has come out against kids playing kick ball in schools- the game is too dangerous. But with the departure of the first Hispanic attorney general in US history, liberals have shown that they are not averse to playing another game- kick the Mexican. Schumer, Feinstein, Reed, Leahy, et el are political thugs who play the game of politics for keeps. Next year the Democrat candidates will say in their stump speeches how much they love and admire their Hispanic amigos and begin their speeches with "boners diaz." The love will last just as long as the Mexicans stick to picking crops and washing dishes. Get much beyond that we'll cut your b**** off.

You're goddamned right, mhr. What is wrong with the Democrat party that it can't appreciate the artisanal craftsmanship that Gonzales put into his lawbreaking and subversion of justice? What do you guys have against Mexican-Americans who better themselves until they reach a place at which they can do major, lasting damage to civil liberties and the rule of law? You're fine when a lettuce picker or busboy poops on the Constitution, but for some reason you have a problem when the attorney general does it. Hypocrites.

Ooooh mhr pulls out the race card,That tells us one thing, they know gonzo is nutso.Al what a hoot,The 25% er's are not Americans.

I hope Hilary does win the election,Just for the Fact i want Bill Clinton to move into Karl Roves office and start using all these new found powers that Rove and Cheney have been using.I want the Master Politican Big Dog Bill to use all that power to wipe the rightwing party off the face off the planet.The RNC will never have a private phone call or e-mail again.Al we will be listening to you.Thank you Bush for all the powers needed to get rid of the RNCmafia for good.

Ron Kaufman, political director of the RNC during the Reagan administration and member in good standing of the chummy DC insiders club, was a member of a panel discussion on politics and the media at the University of Vermont on April 25, 2006, along with Howard Wolfson and Howard Dean. Here are some revealing quotes from Kaufman:

[By the way, Kaufman is actively supporting Mitt Romney's campaign.]

[...]

"Actually, I dabbled, like a lot of folks, as a volunteer, didn’t get really involved until 1978, when a couple friends of mine got together – one of my buddies wanted to run for governor of Massachusetts in ’82, and we decided to get involved in Republican politics in ’80, in Massachusetts, and use that candidate’s money and organization to build an organization for my friend. And there were four of us, and ended up falling in love with a guy named George Herbert Walker Bush, deeply.

"But I’m the loser. The other three guys did pretty well. One was Paul Cellucci, who went on to be governor. Another was Andy Natsios, who runs USAID. And the third was Andy Card, went on to be Chief of Staff to the president."

[...]

"The truth is, you know, campaigns love to beat up the media, that they’re the problem with the campaign, and the truth is, early on in campaigns, geniuses like Howard [Wolfson] and I spend hours trying to figure out how to manipulate the media to put our best foot forward, how are we gonna use the media in a proper way to make us – our candidate look better? And then, when we do that, we’re proud of ourselves."

[...]

"A couple things. First, I think that I disagree with [Hurricane] Katrina. I think that the American people are smart. They understand that it’s not Washington’s job to solve all the problems that went down in Katrina. I happen to represent[?] the city of New Orleans, and the problems that happened in Katrina were so overpowering, I don’t care who’s president, they’d happen. And the biggest failure was in New Orleans, sadly, with local officials, not in Washington. You go back to the last huge disaster of that scope in 1906, in San Francisco, and how much money did the federal government put into San Francisco after the earthquake? Zero. The local folks did the right thing, corporate America did the right thing, and they rebuilt it themselves, which is the way it should be."

[...]

"Again, in my White House, [Bush] 41 White House, we ran a – in the end, not in the beginning, but in the end, a popular war that was run, by everyone’s standard, well, and it masked for us, a lot of problems underneath, the economy, etc. When the war dissipated as an issue, it cost us the presidency.

"This president has just the opposite problem. He’s got an unpopular war, for whatever reason, not run by great, by most people’s standards, well, that mask a lot of good things underneath, the economy and jobs, etc. I actually think, by this election – and I know Governor Dean would disagree – if the war does not become the big issue it is today, if things happen in Iraq that make people feel better about Iraq, then I think this president will have a good election in ’06, and go down in history as a president who had the courage to take on the war on terror. I’d buy in the White House if I could.

"We’re not very good at communications. The truth is, it’s not a war in Iraq. It’s a war on terror. It’s a much larger battlefield than Iraq, and they don’t talk about it right, and that makes a problem. Again, if that dissipates, the president ends up being a courageous president as well. Quite frankly, if it doesn’t, he’ll go down, as Governor Dean said, as an unpopular president."

[...]

"If I could, we used to call CNN the Clinton News Network. So, they’re the same. And they’re not as good at it as FOX, I must admit.

"But I think there’s a bigger question here, and I think part of the problem is that the corporate change in the media is that they’re in the news room, and that the profit/loss in the newsroom is more and more important than before, and a Walter Cronkite, for instance, probably wouldn’t have the freedom to do the things, expend the money he did then to get the news out.

"So, I think the real problem isn’t really left or right, it’s about, corporate America wants a profit. And I think the Governor’s right. It tends to be more the entertainment value of news, ‘cause it’s better for ratings, than it is for hard news."

Some faces will change, then the Admin can get on with the Re-Bushification Program, i.e., riding out the clock.