Newsweek: The GOP: Waiting for Him to Walk

[babylonsister]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18246425/site/newsweek/?from=rss

The GOP: Waiting for Him to Walk
Michael Isikoff

Newsweek

April 30, 2007 issue - The pressure on Alberto Gonzales to resign intensified last week following his daylong grilling before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The embattled attorney general was repeatedly unable to recall virtually anything about last year's firings of eight U.S. attorneys. GOP senators—hoping for a strong performance—were visibly pained when Gonzales couldn't remember a crucial Nov. 27, 2006, meeting (noted on his calendar), when he was briefed by his chief of staff about the firing plan. "Senator, I have searched my memory. I have no recollection of the meeting," Gonzales told GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions. The A.G. was even unable to recall a meeting where President Bush passed along complaints about the three U.S. attorneys—a talk that Bush himself has publicly recalled. (Gonzales said he now "understands" he had such a conversation.)
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With that performance, Gonzales lost the Hill. When he spoke with the attorney general on Friday, Sessions urged Gonzales to "take the weekend" to determine whether he can still "be an effective leader," he said later in a statement. Rep. Adam Putnam, chairman of the House Republican Conference, called on Gonzales to step down—echoing a position that a group of top House GOPers privately delivered to Bush earlier in the month. "He's done something I didn't think possible. He's lost the confidence of almost all the Republicans in Congress," said one top GOP strategist who is close to the White House, anonymous when talking about sensitive personnel matters. A big GOP concern: Gonzales's continued presence will make it hard to move measures important to the party's base, like immigration reform, through the judiciary committees, said the strategist.

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[rodeodance]

1. it is going to be a LONG wait.

[calimary]

4. Especially when there are some (and I am CERTAIN there ARE some -

especially those facing tough reelection fights this year) who are actually waiting, as I am, myself, not just for Mr. Torture's Okay to walk, but for bush to walk, also.

[Double T]

2. Maybe gonzales is just plain old stupid...........

certainly is acting like it.

[senseandsensibility]

3. During his testimony he reminded me of chimp

So I can say, based on that, that there is a very good chance that he is stupid.

[saltpoint]

5. Gonzales may have gambled that his fierce if ill-advised loyalty to

Dubya would trump the political necessity of his having to resign.

It hasn't worked out that way.

Congressional Republicans seem to be building a short pier designed for a long walk in the vicinity of the mako shark sighting this past week.