What if Bush keeps Gonzales?

March 20, 2007

Obviously, the writing is on the [tag]Attorney General[/tag]’s wall. [tag]Tony Snow[/tag] would only say yesterday that [tag]White House[/tag] officials “hope” Gonzales stays on. There are multiple reports this morning that the search is already on for a new AG, and a list of possible replacements is already being floated, presumably as a trial balloon.

But here’s an interesting twist: what if Bush simply rejects all of this out of hand?

President Bush sent a powerful message of support Tuesday for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, calling his longtime friend to express unwavering support in the face of calls for his resignation.

The White House also denied reports that it was looking for possible successors for Gonzales. “Those rumors are untrue,” White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

Bush called Gonzales from the Oval Office at 7:15 a.m. EDT and they spoke for several minutes about the political uproar over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, an issue that has thrust the attorney general into controversy and raised questions about whether he can survive. The White House disclosed Bush’s call to bolster Gonzales and attempt to rally Republicans to support him.

“The president reaffirmed his strong backing of the attorney general and his support for him,” Perino said. “The president called him to reaffirm his support.”

It’s a not-so-subtle attempt to shift the momentum. Dems want Gonzales gone, a growing number of Republican lawmakers either want his resignation or refuse to offer support, and the media is characterizing his ouster as a foregone conclusion.

But Bush, as we all know, is The Decider; he hates being told what to do; he has a breathtaking tolerance for incompetence and corruption; and Gonzales is one of the few remaining Texas buddies the president has left. This morning’s news seems to send a signal to White House allies to stick together.

Bush may very likely consider the facts and conclude, “I don’t care; he’s staying.” And from a purely political perspective, I’m not convinced that would be such a bad thing.

There’s a certain reality that even the closest political observers sometimes forget: Bush doesn’t care about traditional norms. Our political system is supposed to follow certain unwritten political “rules.” When a cabinet secretary screws up, creates a scandal, becomes a distraction, loses the nation’s confidence, and possibly engages in criminal behavior, he or she is supposed to resign. If a resignation isn’t offered, a president is supposed to ask for it.

I frequently forget this myself, but Bush doesn’t concern himself with these “rules.” Rumsfeld’s political obituary was written dozens of times, but Bush didn’t care how tragic Rumsfeld’s tenure was or how many lives it cost. HUD’s Alphonso Jackson admitted publicly that he denied grants to Bush critics. The rules said Jackson had to go; Bush didn’t care. Education Secretary Rod Paige called the National Education Association a “terrorist” organization; gave tax dollars to Armstrong Williams, and had no idea what the No Child Left Behind policy even meant. The rules said Paige had to go; Bush didn’t care.

And now Gonzales has been caught in a massive, possibly criminal, scandal. The rules say Gonzales has to go. As of this morning, Bush, true to form, doesn’t care.

The New York Daily News quoted a “senior Republican” today saying, “[Bush] wants to fight, but that will change because it has to.” I can almost hear Bush saying, “No, it doesn’t.”

The next question is whether it actually matters, and I’m beginning to think it doesn’t. We’ll know soon enough whether Gonzales exits stage right, but I’m beginning to wonder what happens if Bush keeps him around to spite his critics, which given this morning’s phone call, seems plausible.

It seems to me that the longer Gonzales stays, the longer this scandal percolates. It leads to more conflict, more subpoenas, and just as importantly, more revelations about the Bush gang’s operation.

So, Mr. President, you have a choice. Keep an incompetent Attorney General who’s become a lightening rod for scandal, or find a real AG. Either way, the purge scandal’s wheels keep turning.

I remember the last time Bush emphatically supported someone under fire.
That someone (Rumsfeld) didn’t have that support for long.

  • Agreed. Keeping him around gives Congress more reasons and rationales to continue pushing very hard into these and other scandals. It also helps Congress build a case outside of Iraq-related issues and lies to include in any potential impeachment charges against Bush (they can bring one big impeachment proceeding, including Bush, Cheney and Gonzo). It also continues to be one big, huge reminder or theme of why a Dem should be elected president–for a fair and impartial and independent system of laws.

  • Another insightful post from The Carpetbagger… I’ve been saying the same thing all along. For proof you can ask my girlfriend (actually, no you can’t since I’m not giving out her number).

  • If he stays he’ll “waste his time” answering subpoenas and testifying to congress just as he snarked about.

    The answer to executive privilege is impeachment.

    I wonder what Cheney is doing while no one is looking.

  • We’ll trust you regardless, Nonplussed.

    This is one way to expend a president’s miniscule political capital…

  • Here’s the script.

    AG AG will say that he’s a distraction to the important agenda of the President and that he wants the nation to move forward. He’ll get points deducted if he tries to claim (at this late date) that he’s going to spend more time with family and leave public service.

    Takers?

  • If the people in the Justice Department are panicked now, imagine the atmosphere is Gonzales stayed. No one would write anything down and they all shower together for meetings so the couldn’t be wired.

    It increases the chances of a whistleblower.

  • I guess as long as Gonzales remains in place, maybe Bush doesn’t become the lightning rod. And if they’re planning to bomb Iran*, they know that the whole AG scandal will be overshadowed by the new war anyway, so why worry about it?

    * I know only an idiot would think this way, which is why it worries me.

  • Like Will my initial reaction to the news of Bush standing behind Gonzales was, “well, that seals the deal he’ll soon be on the street like Rummy.” On the other hand, Rummy was Cheney’s guy, but Gonzales belongs to Junior. Hence it is more likely that Junior won’t cave to reality and ask for AG AG’s resignation. Yet again Fred Fielding is now advising Junior and he is no hack. It may take him sometime to pry open Junior’s eyes and turn his head toward the light, but you can be sure that is his goal. So AG AG may eventually go.

    Damn those tea leaves! They keep swirling around which makes them very hard to read.

  • We are not talking about Iraq – maybe the Bushies want to keep this alive and do their – “wait wait look over there” act.

    Cheney is getting his leg checked out today – maybe that medical resignation is warming up? One could only wish!

  • I’m not going to comment, beyond this- I don’t think Bush is really a leader personality, he’s still playing a role- he can’t make difficult decisions very comfortably unless he can distance himself from them.

    I’m concluding this from things like 9/11 and Katrina. I think it’s very hard for him to face up to stuff like that, and he even probably recognizes that he’s not capable enough to do what a president is supposed to do to face up to stuff like that, so it makes it harder for him to face up to it.

  • I don’t see how Bush could keep AG on board — while he’s a lame duck prez, it’s still politically costly (and we know that politics are priority numero uno for these twits).

    Personally, I’d like to see my former Congressman John Danforth as a nominee — yes, the whole Clarence Thomas thing is troubling, but he’s a good guy, cares more about the country then anything else, and would get support from quite a few Dems. There’s a reason he’s the only Republican I’ve ever voted for.

    I will note, however, that it’s a sad day when someone can make John Asscroft look good … you know, the same one who lost to a dead guy?

    That’s still funny, BTW …

  • The point of digging into this isn’t to get Abu’s scalp. The point is to uncover the truth about the scumbaggery and specifically about an attempt to turn US Attorney’s into thugs for the GOP. I don’t want to see this become all about whether one man stays in office or not. His departure is only one milestone, not the end in itself, and it would be a tactical victory for Bush to get everyone focussed on the man and the job, instead of on the crap that was, and probably still is, going on.

  • Hmmm…I guess the Dems would demand an independent counsel to investigate whether there was a conspiracy to lie to Congress. Can Bush and Gonzales block such a request?

  • In the days and weeks to come, when it is revealed just how partisan AND incompetent Gonzales is, there is going to be massive support for dumping him from within the DOJ. If Bush fails to heed that call, Gonzales can always be impeached, and there is no up side for Bush or Gonzales even if that effort fails.

    The truth is that even if Alberto resigns, DOJ is probably consigned to doing little more than hanging on until 2008. A successor will be little more than a place-holder, who will spend all of his or her time producing documents for what is likely to be rolling investigations.

    The problem is that Bush does not see the government and its agencies as existing for anything other than carrying out his own agenda and expanding his own power – it matters little to him whether any of the government functions in service to the people, so for the by-product of Gonzales staying at DOJ to be complete meltdown and utter disarray is meaningless to his decision-making process if he sees Gonzales as being able to render opinions that allow Bush to keep on with his plans. I think, in the end, that is the deciding factor – and if they can come up with a replacement that fits their bill and could be confirmed – I think he tosses Al like yesterday’s garbage.

  • Meanwhile, there’s a couple of carrier fleets double parked in the Persian Gulf. This guy has a track record of looking to his gut for answers, people, and it’s going to take his brain to keep those fleets from bumping into something.

  • Getting the AG to resign is one thing to look forward too. but there is another problem that no one is talking about, 8 USAs were fired because they were not republican enough, what about the other 85 USAs. What have they done that allowed them to keep there jobs?

  • I think the sooner Alberto goes the sooner the Democrats sights will then switch to Rove. I can see them use the A.G. as cover for Karl for a while…

  • The key, here, is the precedent of Gates.

    Bush, if he resists, is resisting a continuation of the coup d’etat by senior Republicans associated with his father, as much as he is resisting the pressure exerted by Democrats.

  • It seems to me that the longer Gonzales stays, the longer this scandal percolates. It leads to more conflict, more subpoenas, and just as importantly, more revelations about the Bush gang’s operation.

    Exactly. Keeping Gonzo’s bloody corpse propped up on the ramparts of the White House will help keep the public focused on who the criminals are come 2008. There’s nothing of “the people’s business” that is going to be accomplished in the next 22 months, so why the hell not?

    As to the possible replacements, the only way Bush would get any of those in the AG’s office would be through a recess appointment that would raise more hell than anything else he could do. With the Senate confirmation process, about the only guy he could get approved as AG is PatrickFitzgerald. Given that choice – a guy who would be holding the dagger by which Bush will be killed, versus having a puppet up there who will stonewall everything until January 20, 2009 – I don’t see that there’s any real choice for the Bastard-in-Chief.

    Anything that inflicts maximum pain and damage on Republicans between now and the first Tuesday of November, 2008, is a good thing for us. Let Bush destroy his own party – he’s destroyed everything else he’s ever touched.

  • The Prez may never ask or accept Gonzo’s resignation because to do so would put his entire WH crowd in the crosshairs of history and the sleeping giant of the American people: their attention. It is one thing to have an aide to the VP convicted as a felon – not too many people will take note. But when the AG of the USA is resigning because of alleged misconduct, well then the American people will want more of simply one pound of flesh. When Americans begin to smell a scandal upon a scandal upon a scandal, they tend to smack down the offenders as they can.

    Look out George, the mob is coming and it is made up of common Americans who are tired of your tilt the landscape style of politics. It’s time the rich get a little poorer now that Mr. Bush and his minions have made them richer over the past 6 years.

  • The issue is what Gonzales’ presence does for ongoing investigations into the AG office. (The wire tapping, torture, extraordinary rendition etc.) If he stays does it become easier or harder to investigate? For Democrats, I think it becomes easier, as epublicans will not jump to his defense and underlings will feel free to sell him out. I can see the Republicans (and Media coverage) fighting new investigations if there is a new AG since everything bad was Gonzales’s fault and there is no need to keep looking. This would be unfortunate because Gonzales has done nothing on his own and it is all Bush/Rove pulling the strings. Unfortunately, from Bush’s perspective, his popularity can’t really get any worse and it might distract people from other investigations. From my perspective the more dirt that comes out the better.

  • Another consideration for Bush in dump or not-to-dump Abu Gonzales–who does he choose as successor? Someone above suggested Danforth. That’s exactly the problem for Bush: someone like Danforth would be welcomed by Dems but then Bush would have someone like Elliott Richardson and we all know how that worked out. Some other hack will probably not get past the Democratic Congress.

  • I also think you could be right. One of the things that’s struck me in the last year or so is how much freedom this administration has to ignore the public, due to the fact that Cheney isn’t going to be running for president. The postwar norm has been that the the incumbent VP in a lame-duck administration runs for the next presidency, which forces the administration to pay attention to the political winds, and try to please the public in anticipation of the election. This administration has no such constraints. The only factor that could rein them in would be concerns about a Republican bloodbath next year, but, as we all know, loyalty is a one-way street for Bush. The Republicans are clearly worried about a bloodbath, which is why they want Gonzales gone, but Bush doesn’t seem to care. I suspect he feels lonely and unsupported, and wants to keep Gonzales, one of his few remaining Texas buddies, around to keep him company and tell him how wonderful he is. And yes, I’m also wondering why we haven’t heard a thing about Cheney in connection with the purge scandal.

  • Now, now. He’s not going to find a REAL A.G. Because the one thing they can’t risk is competence in that office.

  • i have a fantansy that bush shafts the neocons that used him to get power, by sacking cheney and making condi both v/p and secretary of state. that fantasy continues that gonzales gets sacked and and is replaced by someone of the democrats choosing. it could actually do something positive for bush’s legacy.

  • Unfortunately: Keeping AG in place is the ideal blocking strategy for Bush. Remember that everyone in the Bush admin is dirty. If Bush allows AG to be sacrificed then it just gives Dems momentum to push on the next dirty domino until that one falls, then the next, etc. By keeping AG around to be the Dems pincushion of choice he slows their momentum and limits “breaking news” about the next scandal (since investigation is focused on this one), the topic doesn’t change, public gets tired of it eventually, and nobody else is put in the crosshairs. Perfect. Even though AG story is a nuisance, the next scandal involving the next domino would be another nuisance too, maybe worse, and we all know there will always be a next scandal. It’s in Bush’s interest to keep this problem around. Wait it out George, some dopey co-ed will vanish sooner or later.

  • The reality is this: there has never been a presidential administration that has acted with the impunity and recklessness than this Bush guy has. I don’t know what vortex of energy must have been present to get this guy re-elected. Surely there is no single American who is scratching their head saying, “Well, I didn’t know he was so incompetent.”

    This administration is entirely without credibility. The whole lot of them are ludicrous. In their efforts to swashbuckle and lie to the nation over and over again – practically about every single thing – it’s made life long Republicans like me absolutely detest the party. At least in my opinion, their antics over the last 15 years or so have been a complete abomination of our core values. There’s no way as far as I can see, to buy the fecund matter these people have tried to sell us. It’s insane.

    Bush and his entire entourage should be ousted from office, and put on trial for fraud against the American people. While I’m sure he’s a nice guy and all that, his leadership has been entirely without any positive effect whatsoever.

    If you love America, somehow – whether you can admit it or not – you’ve had to have your heart broken over and over again under this administration.

    Kind regards to all.

  • I believe a “John Dean” will arrive before long … someone who is called to testify under oath at one of these many Congressional hearings who will actually feel compelled to tell the truth. Like Dean (“I was afraid you were going to ask me about that”), some insider is going to realize that patriotism does not equal Bush-loyalty, or is going to know that there is existing evidence against him which would make Congressional lies a criminal liability. Imagine, for example, if Kyle Sampson, knowing his tit is already in the wringer, distressed by all the negative publicity, decides to tell all in public, sworn testimony. Not that I think it will be HIM, necessarily, but someone, someday, soon, I think it will happen.

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