Something I don't understand? Help? (GonzoGate)

[Singular73]

Ok, so the obvious trails of deceit are un-ending in the Bush administration.

There are acusations that are unparalleled, both in the past and present (I would start a list, but I don't have that kind of time).

Someone explain to me:

Why is it that THIS is the issue that Republicans decide to stand up for? That THIS is what crosses the line for them?

Lying us into war, no prob, caging, no prob, domestic spying, no prob, but OH NO, GONZO may have lied! OH NO! Throw him to the fishes!

My only assumption is:

1) Its much worse than we thought, Dems know it, therefore are latching on.

2) #1 can be proven.

The politics of it all don't make sense to me, unless there is something we don't know.

I mean for Gods sakes, they are still supporting, to a large degree, this idiocy in Iraq...what does Gonzo know?

[Captain Angry]

1. Because the press is actually reporting this one?

They don't have to defend actions that the public doesn't hear about.

Caging, spying, etc.

War is patriotic, so nothing for them to defend there. The sissy Democrats have to defend their positions on that one, as far as they're concerned.

The other reason, is that if they speak up on this one, and generate more press attention, it's less focus on other issues. We all know that newsrooms have been decimated, and that the reduced staff all go to the same things now.

[glowing]

2. Making Gonzo the bad guy distracts everyone from the Bush... It

makes him the fall guy... advising wrong actions and etc.... and it keeps the investigation stalled at the justice dept. Especially when certain people's won't even show up when called to testify...

[cui bono]

5. Exactly. As Palast says, he's the puppet and as long as everyone is going

after him they're not going after the puppeteer.

So they give us gonzo and then they'll expect us to be happy. And when we want to get to the meat of the matter they'll say the Dems are never going to be happy until they put Pelosi in the WH or something like that, call it a witch hunt, etc...

Also, this guy is so pathetic they just can't defend him. How would they? He's supposed to be upholding justice in this country and his testimony shows that he has no idea what is going on in his department nor how it is supposed to be run, let alone exposing him for the liar that he is. I couldn't believe his "I'll have to check on that and get back to you" answers for things that he should have been able to have knowledge of at any moment in time, things pertaining to what his job is and how the DOJ works. What a tool.

[MadMaddie]

3. Gonzo knows all of * secrets all of them back to the point of

before * was running for Governer....Gonzo has actively participated in crimes he claims he has no memory of....and Gonzo (in my opinion) has committed crimes against the Constitution.

If Gonzo goes down....the house of cards could fall...because he is a coward....and I guarantee that Gonzo's memory will start getting sharper when he realizes he is going to have a bunk mate vs hiding behind the coat tails of *

[NanceGreggs]

4. Dead-on accurate!

Gonzo is just the kind of loyal friend whose loyalty goes out the window when it's his ass on the line.

IMHO, this Cheshire cat with the smarmy grin will turn into a singin' canary the minute he's shown the cage.

[JDPriestly]

6. It's called strategy. You go after the little guy. You offer him a deal and he gives

you the goods on the big guys.

Further, Gonzo is the gate keeper on prosecutions of bad guys for the whole country (at the federal level). If Congress can force Gonzo to resign or can impeach Gonzo, the Senate will have to approve his replacement (unless Gonzo resigns during the recess of Congress and Bush immediately appoints a replacement). If Gonzo does not resign, Congress will be able to impeach and possibly remove him from office. Then the Senate (which is half Democratic and half Republican) will have at least some small influence over Bush's choice for the next attorney general and hopefully someone more objective and fair than Gonzo will be selected.

The problem for the Bush administration is that if Gonzo resigns under the kind of fire that he is facing in Congress, it will look like Congress is right, that Gonzo lied and that there is something very wrong about the surveillance program. Gonzo and the Bush administration are trying to avoid facing the proof that Congress is right. That is because Bush does not like to admit he is wrong. Bush does not like to be defeated or to be forced to do things.

Bush is in a very bad spot with regard to Gonzo right now. If Congress succeeds in getting Gonzo to resign, Congress will look very successful and will have forced Bush to do something he does not want to do. Bush will feel and look like a loser. Also, Congress will still be able to push the Bush administration regarding the whole surveillance scandal as well as the quite possibly political firing of the U.S. Attorneys.

In addition, very important issues regarding the balance and separation of powers in the federal government are at stake. There are limits to the extent to which the attorney general's office should be a tool of the executive. That office is supposed to be the protector of the people. The policy of the president certainly plays a role in setting the priorities of the attorney general's office, but just as the president is the president of all the people and not just his party, the attorney general is the chief law enforcement agency for all of the American people, not just the president's political party. It appears that the Bush administration turned the attorney general's office into a political tool of the president's party a la Stalin or Hitler. That is un-American and must be stopped now. Prosecutors are entrusted with a lot of discretion, but Congress has the duty to demand that the Bush administration stop using the attorney general's office as a political enforcer especially with regard to voting issues. The firing of the U.S. attorneys apparently because they weren't following the party line closely enough is an example of the Stalinization of the Attorney General's office.

I apologize because I don't think I made this very clear, but it is getting late.