Gonzales on his way out perhaps...?

[Patrick Degan]

Linky

Gonzales may resign this week, Specter says
Senate Judiciary chief says AG may step down before no-confidence vote
Charles Dharapak / AP

WASHINGTON - The top Republican on the Senate committee investigating Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he believes Gonzales could step down before a no-confidence vote sought this week by Senate Democrats.

Gonzales failed to draw a public statement of support from Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. Asked whether Gonzales effectively can lead the Justice Department, McConnell said “that’s for the president to decide.” The senator suggested there may be several resolutions introduced to dilute a no-confidence vote.

“In the Senate, nobody gets a clear shot,” said McConnell, R-Ky.

Yet Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he believed a “sizable number” of GOP lawmakers would join Democrats in expressing their lack of confidence in the attorney general.

Five Republicans have urged Gonzales to resign over his firing of federal prosecutors, while several other Republicans have expressed criticism of his actions.

“Votes of no confidence are very rare,” Specter said. “Historically, that is something which Attorney General Gonzales would like to avoid. I think that if and when he sees that coming, he would prefer to avoid that kind of a historical black mark.”

White House steadfast
The White House has called the upcoming vote a “political stunt” and said Gonzales retains President Bush’s confidence.

Specter long has made it clear he believed the Justice Department no longer functioned well because of Gonzales’ handling of the prosecutor firings and that as a result Gonzales would step down.

But Specter’s comments Sunday raised the pressure on Gonzales and Bush, who has indicated Gonzales would not be leaving anytime soon.

Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California said they will seek a vote on a nonbinding resolution as early as this week to express what senators of both parties have said for weeks: that Gonzales has become too weakened to run the department.

A no-confidence vote, though symbolic, probably would create trouble for Gonzales. Any attorney general needs to work with Congress on legislation, as well as nominees who require Senate confirmation. Gonzales would need to confirm a new deputy attorney general because his current one, Paul McNulty, is leaving over the firings of federal prosecutors.

Gonzales will be in Europe next week, visiting his counterparts in Hungary and Switzerland before joining a conference of leading industrial nations Thursday in Germany. He will be back in Washington on Friday — the night before the long Memorial Day weekend and a planned congressional vacation.

The Ashcroft sick-bed matter
Specter and other senators said they were particularly troubled by testimony last week that Gonzales, when he was Bush’s White House counsel, pressured then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to certify the legality of Bush’s controversial eavesdropping program while Ashcroft was in intensive care.

In his testimony, former deputy attorney general James Comey said he thought the no-warrant program was questionable and violated the law. Gonzales and White House chief of staff Andrew Card then headed to Ashcroft’s sick bed at George Washington University Hospital in an unsuccessful bid to convince Ashcroft otherwise. The program was eventually certified after it was modified.

On Sunday, Schumer sent a letter to Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington, asking if they personally ordered Gonzales to Ashcroft’s hospital room. When asked twice by reporters last week, Bush refused to answer.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he did not believe that Gonzales acted illegally. If Bush chooses to support Gonzales, then senators should work on passing legislation such as immigration reform rather than playing “gotcha” games, said Graham, R-S.C.

“I want to focus on that, rather than pass a resolution, that’s never been done in the history of the Congress, to play ’gotcha’ politics with the attorney general,” he said.

Specter appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” McConnell spoke on ABC’s “This Week,” and Graham was on “Fox News Sunday.”

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Personally, I still think the White House is going to make a fight of it. Either way, Abu Ghonzales is toast. Even if he stays, his credibility and effectiveness are destroyed. And if he stays on even after the vote, it makes it all the easier for Congress to justify appointing a special prosecutor on the grounds that the Justice Department has clearly been corrupted.

[SirNitram]

Not a chance. The more anyone pushes that he's going to leave, the more Bush is going to sulk, stamp his feet, and potentially throw his veto stamp at the wall, insisting he keep Gonzales.

[Howedar]

What would he be vetoing? It's a Senate resolution, not a bill. There's nothing for him to sign in the first place as far as I know.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I wonder how much longer the White House can fend off an angry horde really.

And quite frankly, there are lot of coffin nails to be nailed at the moment.

[SirNitram]

What would he be vetoing? It's a Senate resolution, not a bill. There's nothing for him to sign in the first place as far as I know.

I didn't say he'd veto something. I said he'd throw the stamp at something. Keep in mind I have concluded this president is a spoiled fucking brat, and thus I expect the basic behavior of a tantrum.

[Howedar]

Gotcha.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'd love to see the appointment of Comey as AG forced on the administration at this point.

[Durandal]

Gonzales' days are numbered. Whether or not Bush wants to accept that is a completely separate issue.

[CmdrWilkens]

Honestly the more I see of this the more I think of John Stewart on Bill Moyer's journal. He pointed out that the Bush junta is basically the mob, you do your job, you get made, and if you get pinched then you say nothing and you get rewarded. Gonzales is being pinched and rather than give up ANYTHING which could play badly he simply is willing to let himself look like a fool so that Bush remains untarnished so in turn Bush supports him unilaterally.

[The Original Nex]

There is an online petition going around calling on the House to impeach Gonzo.

+http://impeachgonzales.org/

They cite:

Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides for removal of the President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States. We believe the process will prove that Atty. General Gonzales has committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors, including the abuse of power and violation of the public trust, both impeachable offenses.

Now I never knew that Congress could actually remove a Cabinet member from office. Is it simply out of convention and tradition that they do not, or that the President usually gets the message and fires them before it gets to that point?

[Lord Zentei]

Gonzales' days are numbered. Whether or not Bush wants to accept that is a completely separate issue.

And in that vein, shrubby has descided to stamp his feet a little:

Bush calls Gonzales no-confidence vote 'political theater'

POSTED: 4:16 p.m. EDT, May 21, 2007

• President Bush Monday said that Attorney General Gonzales has his support
• The president says the Gonzales "has done nothing wrong"
• Democrats planning a symbolic no-confidence vote in the Senate
• Republican Sen. Arlen Specter speculated that Gonzales would resign before vote

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush insisted on Monday that embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales still has his support and denounced Democratic plans for a no-confidence vote as "pure political theater."

"He has done nothing wrong," Bush said in an impassioned defense of his longtime friend and adviser during a news conference at his Texas ranch.

Despite Bush's comments, support for Gonzales is eroding, even in the president's own party. The Senate is prepared to hold a no-confidence vote, possibly by week's end, and five Republican senators have joined many Democrats in calling for Gonzales' resignation.

The attorney general is under investigation by Congress in last year's firing of eight federal prosecutors.

The president told the Democrats to get back to more pressing matters.

"I stand by Al Gonzales, and I would hope that people would be more sober in how they address these important issues," Bush said. "And they ought to get the job done of passing legislation, as opposed to figuring out how to be actors on the political theater stage."

Still, Bush did not directly answer a question about whether he intended to keep Gonzales in office through the end of his presidency regardless of what the Senate does.

Gonzales does not necessarily need Congress' support to continue serving. But Bush and Gonzales are under increasing pressure as more lawmakers demand the attorney general's departure.

Senate Democrats plan no-confidence vote

Democrats pressed ahead with plans to put the Senate on record in expressing a lack of confidence in him.

The vote would only have a symbolic impact. If a majority of senators vote for the measure, Gonzales would not be removed from office.

"The president should understand that while he has confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, very few others do," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, in response to Bush's comments. "Congress has a right -- and even an obligation to express its views when things are this serious."

Gonzales, who is headed to Europe this week, scrapped a meeting with his Swiss counterpart and shelved tentative plans for a tour and a meeting in Hungary. But the overall trip is still on, and he is to leave Tuesday.

His former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, is to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill about her role in the firings of the U.S. attorneys.

Gonzales is at the center of congressional inquiries into the 2006 firings by the Justice Department. He has acknowledged the ousters were mishandled but has denied politically motivated interference and has resisted calls for his resignation.

Hospital visit further erodes support

Further eroding his support was the revelation that in 2004 -- as White House counsel -- Gonzales went to the hospital bedside of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to pressure him to certify the legality of Bush's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program while Ashcroft lay in intensive care.

Ashcroft had reservations about the program's legality and refused, according to Senate testimony by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey.

Bush was asked about Gonzales during a news conference on his ranch with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

"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.

As for the attorney general's stops in Switzerland and Budapest, Hungary, Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said they had never been set in stone. He said Gonzales would leave Tuesday for meetings in Munich that are a leadup to next month's gathering in Germany of leaders of eight major industrial democracies.

Roehrkasse said Gonzales had hoped to travel to the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest for a tour and a meeting that ultimately could not be scheduled. Similarly, Roehrkasse said Gonzales was too short on time to make it to Switzerland, and that no meeting there was ever confirmed.

Sascha Hardegger, a spokesman for the Swiss Justice Ministry, said Washington called off the meeting.

[Patrick Degan]

Sure it's political theatre. Just wait until he gets to see the curtain-rise on Act II: Torture-boy's impeachment.

[CmdrWilkens]

Now I never knew that Congress could actually remove a Cabinet member from office. Is it simply out of convention and tradition that they do not, or that the President usually gets the message and fires them before it gets to that point?

William W Belknap is the name you re looking for. He is the only cabinet secretary to ever be impeached. As a curious matter he was impeached AFTER he resigned and when the proceedings were forwarded to the Senate the Speaker wrote that resignation with the intent to avoid the proceedings should not remove him from Congroess's jurisdiction. The jurisdiction vote in the Senate passed but the conviction vote failed when many of the nays on the jurisdiction vote went with a nay on conviction for the same reason. So suffice to say that in the history of the US there have been 2 Presidents and 1 Cabinet Secretary impeached so its rare regardless.

[Vympel]

Bush, the fool who pranced around an aircraft carrier in a flightsuit, is calling something political theatre?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Bush, the fool who pranced around an aircraft carrier in a flightsuit, is calling something political theatre?

He truly is a small child, isn't he, Vympel?

+http://impeachgonzales.org/

Oh FFS, don't be a pussy.

http://impeachgonzales.org/

Wut, they have a hostile forum or sysadmin over there?