In his own mind, I'm sure he did right. I think these guys get the idea that the only way to keep America safe is the only way they've been running things - burning bridges and take the law into their own hands. The distinction between being the top law enforcer and 'being the law' was never made. It sounds like he still doesn't quite get it.

A simply pathetic and disgraceful man.

He's lookin' kinda dumb
with his finger and his thumb
in the shape of an 'L'
on his forehead.
-with apologies to Smashmouth

"for some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with.

Take solace, Fredo. You're only one of the many who are evil. And that number would be far greater had you enforced the law a bit more diligently.

Just off the top of my head, there was [follows a long list of transgressions] -- Steve Benen

But, since he didn't remember any of it, it didn't happen. And, I think he overestimates his reputation. He's not seen as evil; he's seen as too stupid to breathe.

By his way of thinking, because he wasn't the only one with decision-making ability at the DOJ, he's not at fault for what went down.

He was AG, but there were others who wrote stuff, made phone calls, sat in meetings, etc., so he can't possibly at fault.

When everyone's involved no one's at fault.

Like his Master, a true sociopath.

"It ain't the way I wanted it! I can handle things! I'm smart! Not like everybody says... like dumb... I'm smart and I want respect!"

"Fredo, you are nothing to me now..."

Like the movie character, "Fredo", he needs to be taken out to the middle of the lake. He has no idea of the damage he has caused world wide and the devastation at home. Our rights were in his hands and he washed his hands and was done with us. Apparently his brain is as smooth as a baby's butt, leaving him with no grooves to store anything. Lets get that boat in the water now!

Well, he established a standard against which all other future AsG can be judged at a higher level --

c6: Exactly. Antisocial personality to the core. Even if to some extent it's an act, he's been 'acting' so long that the end results are the same as if he were pathologically incapable of prosocial behavior. But I think you're right - the lot of 'em (Fredo, Bushie, Rummy, et al.) are most probably insane. Certainly they are emotional and cognitive cripples, more in common with adolescent street gangs than functional adults.

The only solution for this is indictment and conviction, along with that of the whole lousy crew for which he performed his demeaning contortions. But will we get it? Even Move.On, via its gamed "prioritizing" list (see yesterday) seems to think it's not important. I say it's more important than health insurance, and I haven't been feeling well lately.

This is Why They Need to Be Prosecuted

... and one hopes, convicted and jailed. Otherwise, they keep coming back, like brain-eating zombies.

What, no Seligman!? Nice parade of horribles, but you sure left out a biggie. I think you need to reassess Gonzo downward.

His attempt at the Nuremburg Defense would have more force if he would have testified in favor of those policies rather than "forgetting" A number of folks calling for prosecutions are right. It is not a quest for vengence, but to send a message to future generations of leaders that lawlessness will not be tolerated.

A few years back, there were a couple of guys riding around Texas in a pickup truck drumming up sales for the Texas Rangers - One had a Harvard MBA sheepskin, the other a Harvard Law degree.

And, to think, there was a time when those degrees were supposed to represent the "Best and the Brightest". Harvard, hang your head in shame for taking their money and passing them through.

Although I think Mr. Gonzales should be tried for war crimes and be sent to prison, I would settle for his disbarment. Disbarment would deal a heavy psychological blow to this sycophant.

Disbarment would deal a heavy psychological blow to this sycophant.

So would waterboarding, if that's the goal.

"What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?" asks Gonzo

the guy is as as clueless as ever ...

send him to The Hague! He'll get his answer there ...

well, nobody said he was smart. His capacity for doing what he did as AG comes from the same part of his character that now doesn't understand what he did wrong. What's hilarious about both him and Bush is that they want to write memoirs. Who's gonna buy them?

Why doesn't Gonzo understand that when you are in charge blaming subordinates for creating and implementing wide spread DOJ policies that are dangerous to the fabric of our democracy just isn't a defense. Finding and stopping the bad acts of his subordinates was his job. He failed and failed badly. He refused to take either responsibility or action when the bad acts were pointed out. That tells everybody that he really approved of and encouraged all of those bad acts.

Of course we could take him at his word. Maybe he just doesn't have the mental capacity to remember his way to the lunch room.

Either way I am not surprised he can't find a job. He is either ethically or mentally defective.

this book will be canceled as soon as that pardon comes through.

Gonzo is now an "accident" waiting to happen?

By "pathetic" I think you mean "contemptible."

Gonzales can console himself with the fact that he was merely a miserable, spineless, toady rather than an active agent of evil a la Cheney, Feith, Rumsfeld.

The prisons are full of people saying the same thing. "I'm innocent." "What did I do that was so wrong?" "Why me?" "Why is everybody picking on me?"

Given Fredo's history...this was to be expected.

People who give no consideration to others should expect no consideration for themselves.

Pathetic, with a capital "P."

I've got a job for you Fredo. Take these loaded guns, have a seat here in the middle of the highway and start cleaning. Make sure you clean the barrels thoroughly. Don't worry about the safety.

"What's hilarious about both him and Bush is that they want to write memoirs. Who's gonna buy them?"

Ann Coulter has made a career by selling books. Enough said.

In honor of the holiday season, I had thought to cue the tiny violins for Gonzo---but due to the economic malaise known as "Bush's Great Global Depression of Everything," all the tiny violinists were laid off....

Is that a little violin playing for Fredo that I hear in the background?

The bottom has fallen out of the standards we set for our most important public officials.

I don't think it is anything he DID that makes law firms shy away from hiring him.

It's the fact that he can't remember anything he says or does. I mean, the man's short term AND long term memory are GONE. He's frigging disabled and he should file for disability.

He put his incompetence on display in those hearings, and he's got to know that prospective employers have the tapes.

Boy, I bet he's sorry he gave up that judgeship to come at Dim Son's beck and call. I think The Bush Crime family owes him. How about a nice job at the library?

If you look up WATB in the Urban Dictionary, there's Gonzales' picture.

Among Gonzales' many failings is the fact that he is an utterly incompetent executive. He is not capable of initiating a dog fight with a pack of hungry dogs. He has just demonstrated part of the reason why.

In spite of his public dissembling, he almost certainly remembers the various scandals at the DoJ while he was there. Gonzales is not a stupid man. But he does not consider himself to be personally responsible for those scandals.

I'd bet that he considers those scandals to be either the responsibility of the media, of the individuals who got caught, or of his political enemies. The third option is the one his statement sounds like he is thinking of. But he has no concept of a leader who selects members of his organization and creates a climate within his organization that leads to accomplishment or failure from those members. Gonzo just doesn't do leadership.

Time to reread Hannah Arendt's book "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil"

well, nobody said he was smart. His capacity for doing what he did as AG comes from the same part of his character that now doesn't understand what he did wrong. What's hilarious about both him and Bush is that they want to write memoirs. Who's gonna buy them?

Posted by: elizabeth on December 31, 2008 at 11:09 AM | PERMALINK

Alas...Elizabeth... fiction sells...
The truely sad thing is that Bush, the war criminal is writing pardons like crazy... EVERY Bush pardon sould be immediately thrown out, and every one of these criminals need to be prosecuted, and HUNG or shot for treason

I am ashamed that he calls himself a republican... I am appalled at what my party, its leader and cabinet officials did to our country...I am now an independent- voted for a change...decorated vietnam vet who is sad to see what the grand old party has done to America's values and reputation.

And I am just as disgusted with the DEms... has anyone... and I MEAN ANYONE heard any reason why impeachement went off the table? Pelosi lost all credibility with me... THAT should have been the VERY FIRST THING they did after the people voted the dems back into control.

In his own mind, I'm sure he did right. I think these guys get the idea that the only way to keep America safe is the only way they've been running things - burning bridges and take the law into their own hands.

The NAZIs, to a man, thought this way until the very end. Hitler himself thought that no matter how he was demonized for his actions, that ultimately the West would thank him for doing the "tough work" that they didn't have the stomach for. They ALL thought they were saving Western civilization from "world jewry" and from the soviet menace. Every action they took, they literally thought was the right action to take.

Yes, I AM comparing the Bush Admin to the NAZIs. The difference is merely one of degree, not quality or politics. Bush STILL thinks that, ultimately, he will be treated well by history for accomplishing that which all other western nations wanted to do but didn't have the stomach for.

He's wrong as was Hitler and his minions. History will NOT be kind to Bush and will never ever rehabilitate him. Bush=torture just as Hitler=death camps.

Don't these worthless milquetoast bastards in DC realize that *not* arresting and prosecuting Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez et al for their crimes makes America *more* like a pathetic banana republic dictatorship, not less like one?

What does it say to the world that we refuse to prosecute our war criminals? What does it say that Dick Cheney and his minion George W. Bush can get away with so much evil and so much murder, and all we get from Reid & Pelosi is "impeachment is off the table" and "we're very disappointed..."

Republicans all over the country chuckle with glee when they recognize what a lawless and anarchic situation we're in. They can get away with anything, and nobody will ever punish them for it.

Many posters here seem to want to lean towards "they're crazy" to explain this antisocial behavior, mixed in with a bit of "they're stupid."

If only it were that simple. Read a bit of Naomi Klein (disaster capitalism) to understand why chaos and lawlessness are Good For Business, and are in fact the *GOAL* of an entire generation of economists and "public servants." In the end, they hope to either profit from their actions financially, or destroy government from within (thus clearing the way towards further profits).

Personally, I think Bush is mostly a puppet for Cheney, et al., but please don't assume that these evil actions (torture, spying, wars of aggression) are merely the acts of the stupid or insane; on the contrary, they're very carefully planned and calculated and have a clear goal: to increase the profits of the corporate juggernauts involved, no matter what the cost to the "little people" (ie, you and I).

If you want to change this behavior, you have to:

1) Punish the politicians involved with the full force of the law (note that war crimes that result in the death of a prisoner are *capital* offenses) -and-
2) Strike to the root of the problem by reinstating the ideals of government: they should be servants of the *people*, not just servants of the corporations.

As to how we do part 2), I have no real idea -- it's horrifically complicated. However, that doesn't excuse us, as a society, from trying to achieve it. In fact, if we don't strike to the root of this problem by making war and chaos less profitable, I can pretty much guarantee you that the whole insane saga of the Bush years will simply happen again, and again, and again (with worse consequences for the "little guy" each cycle).

Former AG Gonzales does not deserve kudos during his tenure of service. He was all too compliant to his Chief in doing what he knew was wrong. To lament himself is hellish and out of bounds.
Command responsibility rhetoric, Gonzales feels that his position is eternal and he knew about it.
Send him to the dogs.
PATHETIC !

I agree with you Elizabeth, but it won't happen. We let these vermin get away with anything they want and nothing is done. What worries me is that I see Jeb Bush getting ready to run for Congress. It's not over, this country has a very short memory and our forgiveness is unbelieveble. Remember Nixon, we gave him a Hero's funeral. One more GOP leader in this country should just about finish us off for good.

Send him to Gitmo

Isn't it racist to disagree with Alberto Gonzalez? Whenever I criticize Obama the lefites call me a racist. Doesn't it work both ways? Curious, no?

Bush did a lot of things wrong but to pin this whole meltdown on this one man and his cronies is assinine. This has been coming for a LONG time. It is GREED. And I don't hear any of you whining about having been kept safe from annihilation by terrorist in the last eight years. The whole lot of you sicken me as do all those who hate Obama because of his perceived background. Stop drinking the haterade and get something positive done.

The death of democracy ?

It is the end of the America we inherited if those in leadership positions fail to implement the courage,wisdom, and integrity necessary to bring those involved in the Iraq war to task for their deceptions of the American people and for the damage and mayhem they have prosecuted on behalf of the American people.
If our leadership sweeps this assult this abridgment of our beliefs and what we stand for under the rug its all over for America but the shouting. Blow the candles out-----

Alberto Bush's chihuahua lap dog I'am sure that he made millions out of the war like the rest of the crooks.

He should be prosecuted for war crimes (along with others in the Bush administration, including Cheney, Wolfowitz, Feith, and Rumsfeld) for writing opinions that wrongly made torture legal in the eyes and operations of the Bush administration--not to mention trampling on citizens' rights to due process and privacy by condoning government electronic eavesdropping and surveillance without probable cause and without a warrant or prior court approval.

"Gonzo" was nothing more than Dubya's "legal lapdog" and it is no wonder now that no respectable law firm will employ him.

He is part of an administration which has followed no ethical or moral guiding principles....not to mention violating international law and the Geneva Conventions.

send him to Gaza

Fredo: You need to watch the tapes of yourself, as the highest law enforcement officer in the land, being questioned by congress. You had no memory of anything. Your highest skill is in being able to weasle out of answering a straight question.

Let us know when you get your memory back. Until then, you can just STFU!

Reading liberal blogs is sickening! I have never read or heard so much hate ever before. Grow up and read something besides whatever it is you are reading. Saddam gassed thousands of his own people and yet, you thick skulled hateful people keep saying Bush lied about him having WMD. And you also forget that Bill Clinton fired ALL of the states' federal judges. Did you whine then? I didn't hear one word from any of you. Young children don't have much background to know what is really true. Either you people are young children or not to bright because smart adults do not spew hate. Mr. Grill especially needs to get a grip.

Good riddance! He, together with soon-to-be-ex-pres Bush, and the whole merry brigade will be relegated to the dustbin of bad history. It'd be nice to have them all serve some jail time together, same cell.

The Maduff (admitted) Fraud:How many AUSA'S ,US Attorney's and FBI agents received investor complaints or requests to investigate MADUFF?How many emailed each other or "googled" Maduff?How many submitted requests "up-the-line"?How many
letters on USDOJ stationary were sent to the SEC
inquiring about Madoff?How many phone conversations took place?
There is a massive cover-up and it at the door-steps of the AG'S and MUELLER.A Special Prosecutor needs to be appointed immediately and communications need to be "frozen.If the Obama WH allows this highly likely lawlessness to remain uninvestigated,Obama is the prevailing sameness,and sends a clear message that Americans have no rights,prosecutorial tyranny is the only rule of law.

The smart hitched their wagons to the Bush train to cash in. The stupid hitched up because they were invited to the heights, where the stupid usually are not allowed. Gonzo actually thought he was smart and doing a good job when he instinctively did what the idiot prince wanted. Some of the stupid were true believers in The Cause. The Cause being that ten mile long list or resentments the elites had indoctrinated them with.

Gonzo was not actually a true believer. He just mind melded with the Boss and did what the Boss wanted and got pats on the head and that was enough.

Then there is Condi. In a class all her own. Unknown and unknowable. An intellectual spinster BAP who mind melded with the crude lazy frat boy. Nobody will ever explain that.

I'm with Tom C....This guy is one of a group that gang-raped America with slow methodical intent. And this same group in a new form will do it again just as soon as they get their chance. We almost didn't make it this time and I can't help but think that if the majority of Americans don't realize the gravity of the crimes committed by the Bush Admin. - say, through prosecution of war crimes - that it is only a matter of time till the people will lose all representation in government. This is something already in process; read Greenwald at Salon. It's happening right in front of our eyes, a shell game from hell.

He should feel lucky he isn't spending 20 to life in a Texas prison.

I know this man did a bad job, but do we now forget Janet Reno? As for all the Impeachment talk, It has been looked at by just about every the Democrat Lawyers that mattered. In almost every case, they were unified in saying there was nothing arising to the standards for impeachment. It takes much more than just saying & wanting it. With this country & the world in the shape it's in, lets hope Obama can do 1/10 of what he has promised & lets really hope the Republicans don't do as the Dems did all 8 years of GW's tenure. Block anything they could by any means...

alberto g and congress is like the 1998 lincoln town car and the higher ups @ ford

anyone can come up with a hideous design, it's the people who ok'd it into production that i find fault with

now, regarding the senate and it's advise and consent responsibilities, if there ever was a case for a filibuster back in jan of '05...

they are like that

Lots of flowery rhetoric, but all lacking in details. Where's the beef you liberals? If he done us wrong, why wasn't he prosecuted? What did he do that was illegal? His greatest crime was offending liberals.

Hey, Janet Reno, where are you in this discussion? Anyone remember Elian Gonzalez? Anyone remember nearly 100 Branch Davidians who were roasted alive in order to justify the ATF's budget increases and show the power of government? The same Janet Reno who abused her power to protect the Clintons from everything from Whitewater to Vince Foster's "suicide" to Lewinski? Who threatened banks if they didn't make home mortgages to poor credit risks? Weigh that against Alberto Gonzalez who tried to protect the US against terror attacks from vicious Islamofacists.
Again, where's the beef liberals? What are the crimes? No wonder you elected PEBO, flowery rhetoric replaces facts. Step aside, quit whining like a bunch of spoiled little kids, and let adults take care of the business of protecting America and her citizens.

Hey, Janet Reno, where are you in this discussion? Anyone remember Elian Gonzalez? Anyone remember nearly 100 Branch Davidians who were roasted alive in order to justify the ATF's budget increases and show the power of government? The same Janet Reno who abused her power to protect the Clintons from everything from Whitewater to Vince Foster's "suicide" to Lewinski? Who threatened banks if they didn't make home mortgages to poor credit risks? Weigh that against Alberto Gonzalez who tried to protect the US against terror attacks from vicious Islamofacists.
Again, where's the beef liberals? What are the crimes? No wonder you elected PEBO, flowery rhetoric replaces facts. Step aside, quit whining like a bunch of spoiled little kids, and let adults take care of the business of protecting America and her citizens.

Hey, Janet Reno, where are you in this discussion? Anyone remember Elian Gonzalez? Anyone remember nearly 100 Branch Davidians who were roasted alive in order to justify the ATF's budget increases and show the power of government? The same Janet Reno who abused her power to protect the Clintons from everything from Whitewater to Vince Foster's "suicide" to Lewinski? Who threatened banks if they didn't make home mortgages to poor credit risks? Weigh that against Alberto Gonzalez who tried to protect the US against terror attacks from vicious Islamofacists.
Again, where's the beef liberals? What are the crimes? No wonder you elected PEBO, flowery rhetoric replaces facts. Step aside, quit whining like a bunch of spoiled little kids, and let adults take care of the business of protecting America and her citizens.

How stupid of us not to just call up the terorists and ask to have coffee in their camp. I'm sure we could talk it all out reasonably without pre-conditions. They really don't want to eradicate our culture like they say. That's some conspiracy propaganda spread by our real enemies.
We could have had the whole thing wrapped up and tied with a pretty little bow before we even finished burying our dead.

Would you like another wake up call at 9:11?

The atomic bombing of Japan saved lives. I want our enemies to have a respectful fear of our willingness to protect ourselves at all costs.

". . . you thick skulled hateful people keep saying Bush lied about him having WMD. And you also forget that Bill Clinton fired ALL of the states' federal judges." Are you stupid or do you just act stupid? Bill Clinton did not fire federal judges - no one can, since they are appointed for life. He did fire all the federal prosecutors, who, as we heard ad infinitum last year, serve at the pleasure of the president.

Hey, nostalgic and/or paranoid Republicans and right-wingers--there's no need, of course, to respond to your imbecile rants. Check out the post by a real smart person, Rapier, above. Guess who you are?
Rapier, you made my New Year's Eve. Thanks!

What do you bet that Obama will NOT prosecute these cretins who have used our Constitution for butt wipe during these last 8 years (after stealing the presidential election with the help of Scalia, Thomas, Renquist, O'Connor, & Kennedy).

Gonzales, Cheney, Bush, Rice, Addington, Yoo, and Rumsfeld should be subjected to the exact same treatment which they caused to be inflicted on detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq, GITMO, and all of the "black sites".

That Gonzales feels sorry for himself now seems somehow predictable, but that doesn't make it any less pathetic.
_____

It isn't pathetic -- which almost makes him that he claims: a victim. It is DESPICABLE.

And not: Gonzales wasn't/isn't a "sychophant"; he's a a toady, reduced to that by being despicable. He knows what he did, but believes that by continuing to lie, with an undertone of whining, he can continue to outrun the law by evoking sympathy from suckers and dupes.

He got a Harvard law degree because he was sufficiently intelligent to earn it. But combine "legal reasoning" with the standard TX myth of freedom=lawlessness and one ends up with a self-justifying criminal, as much a sociopath as those who dupedly believe the Second Amendment is authorization to overthrow the Constitution which contains it.

To "Gold Star Pops" --

If you'll recall, the US, at Nuremberg, prosecuted Nazis for committing the war crime that is torture. One of the "techniques" they used was WATERBOARDING, which has been defined as torture for thousands of years, and when found guilty for doing so they were EXECUTED.

The same goes for the Japanese, their use of waterboarding, of US troops, being captured by them on film.

Torture is a war crime. It cannot be made legal, regardless the false label one gives it. Effort to make it legal is also illegal. Among the penalties for committing that war crime is EXECUTION. All of that is the law at the behest of the US -- and it established precedent for its good faith by including itself under that same law. NO nation is exempt from that law, regardless how many American cowards put pissed-pants fear above law and reason.

There is no "unlimited" "right" of self-defense, individually or as a nation. There is nothing new under the sun as concerns forms of violence and warfare -- the Bush gang's ahistorical self-justifications on that point notwithstanding. (NO WMDs were found; in fact, had Bush actually BELIEVED there were such in Iraq, he WOULD NOT have invaded.)

You have bought into kissing the ass of an anti-American son of privilege who not only wouldn't give you the time of day, but would steal your watch at first opportunity.

Last but not least: "A system of laws, and not of men." -- John Adams. The oath is to support and defend the CONSTITUTION -- NOT to support and defend your political party, and a head of it who wouldn't lower himself to have a beer with you, against Constitution and country based upon your cowardly urge to yet again piss your pants with the Bush-delivered terrorizing of fools and dupes.