Bush's Muddy Mess

Yesterday, President Bush mourned the resignation of Attorney General Gonzales, charging that Gonzales's... "good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons." (WaPo)

So, let's review why it was past time for Gonzales to go.

"There have been no verified civil liberties abuses in the four years of the act's existence." December 15, 2005, op-ed piece by Gonzales, urging Congress to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act.

FACT: Internal FBI documents show that Gonzales had been informed of at least a half-dozen instances of legal or procedural violations of the Patriot Act. In May 2007, Gonzales's former deputy, James B. Comey, disclosed that he and several colleagues had concluded that the program was so illegal that he and other officials at Justice and the FBI were ready to resign unless it was altered.

"There has not been any serious disagreement, including -- and I think this is accurate -- there's not been any serious disagreement about the program that the president has confirmed." Gonzales, February 6, 2006, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency.

FACT: There was a nighttime showdown over the program in March 2004 in the hospital room of then Attorney General Ashcroft.... Gonzales, as White House counsel, tried to get an ill and "barely articulate" Ashcroft to certify that the program was legal.

"We never had any intent to ask anything of him if we did not feel that he was competent." Gonzales, July 24, 2007, Senate testimony about the visit to Ashcroft's hospital room.

"I have not been involved, was not involved in the deliberations over whether or not U.S. attorneys should resign." Gonzales, March 26, 2007, interview on "NBC" Nightly News.

FACT: Three days later, Gonzales's former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, testified that he had conferred with Gonzales at least five times about the plan to remove federal prosecutors and that Gonzales had attended the final meeting on the topic.

"I haven't talked to witnesses because of the fact that I haven't wanted to interfere with this investigation and department investigations." Gonzales, April 19, 2007, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the U.S. attorney dismissals.

FACT: Gonzales's former senior counselor, Monica Goodling, testified before Congress that in early April, Gonzales ..."laid out for me his general recollection" of the "process regarding the replacement of the U.S. attorneys... and then he asked me if he thought - if I had any reaction to his iteration.... I did not know if it was appropriate for us to both be discussing our recollections of what happened...."

"I don't recall - I don't recall exactly when the decision - I made the decision." Gonzales, April 19 Senate Judiciary hearing on the firings, at which Gonzales said nearly 70 times that he did not know, could not recall or was unsure about various information.

So...although Gonzales repeatedly insisted.... 70 times.... that he could not recall key events in the prosecutor dismissals including a meeting he held with Bush and adviser Karl Rove..... and, although Gonzales testified that there were no internal Justice Department disagreements over a domestic surveillance program, even though top Justice and FBI officials had judged it illegal and threatened to resign unless it was altered.... it was all just dirty politics according to Bush.

Even the conservative National Review in March said of Gonzales, "We have never seen evidence that he has a fine legal mind, good judgment, or managerial ability.... Nor has his conduct at any stage of this controversy gained our confidence." (WaPo)

Gonzales legacy will be that he lied before Congress, interpreted the law to match his boss's political wishes and the White House perception that the Constitution gives the president much more authority than Congress or the judiciary.

He contended that international treaties like the spurned Geneva Convention are subject to "situational" adherence, and signed off on harsh treatment of U.S. detainees. He crafted legal memos that allowed for torture and authorized military tribunals that the Supreme Court later ruled weren't legally authorized, and defended transfers of detainees to harsh interrogation nations.

And, lest we forget, it was Gonzales's U.S. attorney who prosecuted and imprisoned two border agents trying to apprehend a drug runner from Mexico.... giving the drug smuggler immunity to testify against the agents.

A perversion of justice Bush refuses to overturn, although he commuted the sentence of VP Cheney's chief of staff, "Scooter" Libby even before Libby had served a day of his sentence for what passes at the White House as business as usual.... perjury and obstruction of justice.

Gonzales excuses lawbreaking and violent Latino gang members as "individuals who have run into a spell of tough luck," and approved immigration reform legislation that included putting them on the fast track to citizenship on their word that they had renounced gang activity.

While our president mourns the loss of his legal political enabler Gonzales.... we mourn that Bush's Justice Department, the safeguards of our Constitution and the rule of law lay broken at his feet.... trampled into the mud by the actions of his own administration.

Gonzo's Caught Out

So, who to believe?

Notes taken at the time of the incident by the then Director of the FBI Mueller.

Or, the word of Gonzo, the Bush administration's political bag man now masquerading as Attorney General.

In "FBI Director's Notes Contradict Gonzales's Version of Ashcroft Visit," the clash of stories unfolds. Gonzo told the Senate Judiciary Committee about his nighttime visit to the sickroom of Attorney General Ashcroft, that Ashcroft was "lucid" and "did most of the talking."

However, the notes of Mueller.... who was called by an upset Deputy Attorney General Comey to come to Ashcroft's hospital room and observe for himself that Ashcroft wasn't up to the kind of pressure being applied by the White House over the wiretapping program.... tell a far different story.

To quote from Mueller's notes: "Wednesday 3/10/04 @2010: Saw AG. Janet Ashcroft in the room. AG in chair; is feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed."

These words were written just minutes after Gonzo and White House Chief of Staff Card had visited Ashcroft to try to get him to sign a certification that would overturn the Justice Department's decision not to approve the continuation of the wiretapping program in its present form.

While this despicable behavior is bad enough, it's this sentence in WaPo's story that really sums up this arrogant administration.... "After the meeting concluded without success, the Bush administration decided to proceed with the program anyway."

If it hadn't been for the fact that Comey, Mueller and half a dozen other Justice Department officials threatened to resign if changes weren't made that.... "President Bush agreed to make the changes, Mueller and others have testified, but the changes have never been described."

As always with this deceitfully willful White House, the ends justify the means. And the ends are whatever The Decider says they are.

That is why the self-serving utterances issuing from the lackeys in this administration are to be rejected.... and the lying Gonzo should follow Bush's "Turd Blossom" Rove out the door.

Making It Up As He Goes...

Sometimes it's better to just let a person's own words make the case.... which in this instance is the testimony of Attorney General Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) was asking Gonzales about the night in 2004 when he showed up at the hospital bedside of his predecessor, John Ashcroft, to try to get him to overrule his deputy, James Comey, and reauthorize Bush's secret program of warrantless electronic eavesdropping that the Justice Department had concluded as constituted was illegal.

In "Bedtime for Gonzo," by columnist Eugene Robinson, he recounts Gonzales' weaselly explanation to the Committee "for why he would think it appropriate to buttonhole a sick man in his hospital room, regardless of the issue." (WaPo)

"There are no rules governing whether or not General Ashcroft can decide 'I'm feeling well enough to make this decision,' " Gonzo said. When Specter pointed out that Ashcroft had already turned his powers over to Comey, Gonzo replied, "And he could always reclaim it. There are no rules."

"While he was in the hospital under sedation?" Specter interrupted, before giving up on getting a straight answer.

When Gonzales was pressed by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on who sent him on that Mafia-movie errand to the hospital, all this friend of George would say was that the visit was "on behalf of the president of the United States."

Oh yes, King George would definitely approve of such tactics. Gonzales' testimony sums up the philosophy of the Bush administration.... "There are no rules".... the rules are whatever they say they are.

Classify Cheney as "Arrogant"

Make it disappear......

Is this an order from Tony Soprano to his crew? In a sense.

Same mob secrecy, same ruthless response to being crossed.... the office of Vice President Cheney "has refused to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years and recently tried to abolish the office that sought to enforce those rules..." (WaPo)

In 2004, when the Archives' Information Security Oversight Office tried to conduct an on-site inspection of Cheney's office to see how sensitive material was handled, they were blocked by his crew.

This January the Archives Director, William Leonard, wrote Attorney General Gonzales asking him to render a legal ruling on whether Cheney is violating the executive order. Gonzales has not replied.

Of course not, he's too busy throwing law-enforcing border agents in prison and politicizing the Justice Department.

Under this executive order, which mandates a uniform system for safeguarding government classified information, an "entity within the executive branch that comes into possession of classified information" must report each year how much it is keeping secret.

For over six years an arrogant Cheney has kept his actions from public scrutiny.... like refusing to name the industry executives who advised his energy task force, or giving up Secret Service logs showing who visits his office or official residence.... even the costs and other details about his travel.

Snarly Cheney obviously has a lot to hide. As evidenced by the conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice by his chief lieutenant, Scooter Libby, who is probably taking the fall for Cheney's misdeeds and directions.

Maybe Cheney has forgotten that he works for us.... that he can't decide which documents to withhold from our view and knowledge.

Shine a light into Cheney's murky den.