No-confidence vote coming Monday

June 8, 2007

Finally, a reason to look forward to Monday.

The Senate will hold a “no confidence” vote on embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this Monday, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, announced.

In a statement released Friday, Schumer said if all senators followed their conscience, “this vote would be unanimous.”

“However, the president will certainly exert pressure to support the attorney general, his longtime friend,” Schumer added. “We will soon see where people’s loyalties lie.”

Keep in mind, a few weeks ago, Arlen Specter predicted that Gonzales would resign before a no-confidence resolution passed. “I think that if and when he sees that coming, that he would prefer to avoid that kind of an historical black mark,” the Pennsylvania senator told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on May 20.

I have a hunch Specter is wrong — neither Gonzales nor Bush care much at this point about history, propriety, their legacy, etc. — but if he’s right, Gonzales would have to resign over the weekend.

Stay tuned.

Word is that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell may try and filibuster the resolution if Gonzales hangs on through the weekend. “Stay tuned,” indeed.

  • Gonzales won’t resign and Repubs will have full confidence in him come Monday, would be my guess. It’s one thing for them to spout righteus (spell?) sound-bites (and hope it’ll be soon forgotten) but quite another to go on record that they actually stand behind what they say.

  • After all he’s done to damage the country, this is all they face? What does it take to impeach them? Eating live babies on national television?

  • Anybody seen Pan’s Labyrinth? You know Antonio Banderas’ charactar, ‘The Captain’?

    That’s what Gonzales is about. He should be locked away forever.

  • The administration’s reluctance to allow anyone to testify has gotten to the point that it is a defiance of Congress’ oversight role.

    Denying Congressional access to DOJ employees as well as Pace, Harriet Miers, and Karl Rove and other documents just leads the question — what is the administration hiding? What is it so afraid of?

    If I were a tinfoilhat person, I’d say the administration is waiting for its version of Operation Crimson Sky.

  • Whoa, a no-confidence vote! By gum, *that’ll* show ’em!

    Bush has made a career of ignoring people who say shit like, “Well, he’ll *have* to resign/negotiate/change.”

    No, no, no. Nobody *has* to do anything. This Administration didn’t get where it is by letting *anyone* – not the press, not Democrats, not David Broder, not some piss-ant six-term Republican senator – tell them what it *has* to do.

    Here’s a question: what happens if Gonzales sticks around *after* a no-confidence vote? What would Specter like to see done then? Hell, what are the Democrats ready to do?

    Enough?

    Anything?

    Or is that part of the game, too?

  • Gonzales is the WH firewall and he isn’t moving until someone picks him up and carries him out of the building.

    A no-confidence vote that gets only Democratic votes will give the GOP the opportunity to showcase the partisan nature of the investigation, and it will make it harder to get the information that is still missing. If they don’t have the 60 votes, I’m not sure what is really accomplished.

    Until someone is facing imminent indictment or arrest, getting the whole story – or enough of it to take this to a more meaningful level of accountability, this is going to be like pulling teeth

  • I suspect the measure will pass along party lines, with several repubs joining our side. The WH will shrug it off, and Broder will decry the lack of decency and the viciousness of left wing Democrats.

    But, mark my words. This will slowly resonate. Within 2 months, Gonzo will be such a laughingstock, and the Bush regime so hamstrung over it, that they will wish they had demanded his resignation a year ago. For repubs, there’s no ‘winning’ this fight. There’s only playing out the clock to avoid ‘defeat’. There is no long term tactical reason to defend Gonzo, only the ego’s need of the moment.

    They’ve entered this fight with a ‘None shall pass’ but will end up threatening to bite our knees, if only we’d let them.

  • libra@#2 you asked, I’m not so anal as to be presumptive enough to correct, but it’s righteous. And y’all are right, Gonzo is the firewall. And it will pass mostly along party lines, which is fine, it’ll destroy the law and order meme the Reps flount. Especially on the heels of Pardon Poor Scooter, fallen soldier movement.
    After Ashcroft and Mrs Eagle Soar testify about the midnight ride, I hope Leahy or Whitehouse introduces bills of impeachment. They should have done this months ago when Gonzo testified we had no right of habeus corpus. They shoulda thrown the Constitution and every damned law book at him that day, including the Magna Carta! My guess is sometime before Labor Day, Gonzo will develop a big bad case of familyetitis, and tender his resignation, if he holds out that long.
    Oversight is a glorious thing. Keep up the sunshine!

  • If you are a Congressional Republican, take heed! The Gonzales vote of no-confidence is a vote for the rule of law. If you vote for party loyalty over the rule of law, rest assured the wheels of your party’s cart will come off. If you vote for party loyalty over the rule of law you will be crushed in the elections of 2008. We common Americans are watching this such vote, and the WH’s refusal to cooperate on this USA scandel. If the vote is indeed on Monday, I would surely hope every elected official who values the rule of law over the cult of personality or any other form of authoritarianism would vote their consciences and let the chips fall where they may. Anything less, and those elected officials will not be around after the next election cycle.

    Oh, and while I’m at it, curses to all who damned the rule of law and submitted letters on behalf of Scooter Libby. From Kissinger to Pace, these apologists are unAmerican if they think their kind should be above the law! -Kevo

  • Oh, and to any Republican reading this thread, I am also a Republican, so when you read #10, don’t dismiss the sentiment, as there are a lot of us who are pissed off that the Bush crowd has lead us down this ill-begotten path of political digression. -Kevo

  • Spending the weekend bribing and blackmailing senators he won’t be able to recall in the future, Gonzales decided this vote won’t make any difference and will be pushed off the floor by some other piece of legislation that will ambush the vote. Besides, Bush and Gonzales have come too far together to turn back now so as long as Bush is president he will be AG.

  • Bush always says no no no before he’s forced to say yes.

    Even his mama must know that Gonzales is a liability.

  • Hey, Norm Coleman and Gordon Smith what ya goin’ to do when the vote comes for you?

  • Don’t worry everybody, a no-confidence vote in Alberto Gonzales is “the right thing to do.” Just like the Iraq Capitulation Bill was “the right thing to do.”

    Besides, they don’t the have the 67 votes in the Senate, blah, blah, blah, support the troops, etc. etc.

    Alberto offers you his support.

  • So, how soon after the no-confidence vote are Democrats going to impeach Gonzales?

    Days?

    Weeks?

    Months?

    Years?

    Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets…

    • Comments are closed.