{"id":10864,"date":"2007-05-21T14:01:50","date_gmt":"2007-05-21T18:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10864.html"},"modified":"2007-05-21T14:01:50","modified_gmt":"2007-05-21T18:01:50","slug":"bush-wont-budge-on-his-buddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-wont-budge-on-his-buddy\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush won’t budge on his buddy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By any reasonable measure, the walls are collapsing around Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He’s been exposed as an incompetent liar, turning his job as the nation’s top law-enforcement officer into little more than a cog in Karl Rove’s political machine. In the Senate, 10<\/a> members of the president’s own party agree that it’s time for Gonzales to go, one way or another. The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee believes Gonzales won’t last the week<\/a>. The Justice Department itself is in turmoil<\/a>, and no professionals are willing to work alongside<\/a> someone as disgraced as the current AG.<\/p>\n

And now that the Senate is poised to consider (and likely pass) a no-confidence vote on Gonzales, what does the president have to say about all of this? Nothing good<\/a>.<\/p>\n

President Bush on Monday called an upcoming Senate vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales “pure political theater” and stood by his embattled friend.<\/p>\n

“He has done nothing wrong,” Bush said during a news conference at his ranch.<\/p>\n

The president rapped Senate Democrats preparing a no-confidence vote on the embattled attorney general by week’s end and urged them to get back to legislative business.<\/p>\n

“I frankly view what’s taking place in Washington today as pure political theater,” Bush said, sounding exasperated with the furor swirling around his longtime friend. “I stand by Al Gonzales and I would hope that people would be more sober in how they address these important issues.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The president should understand that while he has confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, very few others do,” responded Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “Congress has a right — and even an obligation — to express its views when things are this serious.”<\/p>\n

I don’t disagree in the slightest. I just don’t think senators should be surprised when Bush and Gonzales treat the no-confidence vote the way they treat habeas.
\n
\nOf course, this assumes that a vote is on the way. It may not be — Republican obstructionism<\/a> is still the minority party’s favorite ploy.<\/p>\n

Democrats say they’re serious about holding the no-confidence vote, but it’s not clear they will be able to make it happen. The Senate has a full plate this week, with the debate over immigration, and wrangling over the Iraq spending bill. In addition, Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., indicated he’d be unlikely to let a simple no-confidence vote proceed.<\/p>\n

“In the Senate, nobody gets a clear shot,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even on a non-binding resolution, the Senate GOP has to play games. How very sad.<\/p>\n

A few other points to consider:<\/p>\n

* Over the weekend, the White House’s third-string press secretary came up with a new tack<\/a> on the no-confidence vote.<\/p>\n

“As for no-confidence votes, maybe senators need a refresher course on American civics,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto, with President George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas. “What I mean is I think you find no-confidence votes in parliamentary systems, not the American system of government.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fratto, again, is confused. The Senate measure is not a parliamentary no-confidence vote<\/a>; it’s a sense of the Congress that a joke of an Attorney General needs to be replaced. The Senate can vote on these resolutions all day, every day; they’re entirely consistent with the American form of government.<\/p>\n

* There’s even some precedent<\/a> for all of this.<\/p>\n

Such votes of censure or condemnation are uncommon, although a handful were held in the 19th century, Congressional historians say. In 1886, the Senate adopted such a resolution against President Grover Cleveland’s attorney general, A. H. Garland, because he had refused to provide documents concerning the firing of a federal prosecutor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* It’s not just the Senate, House Dems have unveiled their own resolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* DFA and Brave New Films have launched an “Impeach Gonzales” campaign. Take a look<\/a>; there’s a great clip on the homepage.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By any reasonable measure, the walls are collapsing around Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He’s been exposed as an incompetent liar, turning his job as the nation’s top law-enforcement officer into little more than a cog in Karl Rove’s political machine. In the Senate, 10 members of the president’s own party agree that it’s time for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}