From today’s WaPo:
As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. “There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse,” Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.
Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated.
All right, Senator Kerry, time to step up. The “no confidence” motion failed — as everyone knew it was going to. Meanwhile, Alberto Gonzales lies to Congress with apparent impunity, destroys the credibility of the Justice Department, and generally embarrasses himself and the nation. Would you PLEASE do the right thing now?
Please?
…the only way to get rid of Speedy Gonzales is to have him tried and convicted of a crime. But who is going to try him? The DoJ?
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IIRC, the last federal official who was impeached and removed was Alcie (or is it Alcee?) Hastings, a black federal judge from FL. He had been convicted of (something) and impeached and removed. Aside from being tried and convicted of a crime, Gonzales will be set until Jan 2009.
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Ironically, after Mr. Hastings was removed from his judgeship, he was elected to the House from southern FL.
that the Senate will do the right thing. None. This is exactly the sort of dithering inaction that gives Democrats its well-deserved reputation as spineless. Where is the leadership? Where?
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My cynicism is at record levels today, so I’ll leave with this notion: this nation has the government it deserves.
On a day when the Gallop poll for the first time shows Bush’s approval below 30% and when Cheney’s stands at 13% and when Gonzales is exposed in yet another lie, one wonders why Democrats aren’t more aggressive. Clinton’s popularity never sank so low as Bush’s. Support for impeaching Clinton never rose as high as support today does for impeaching Bush. You can bet that “gentlemen” like Gingrich, Delay, Lott, Boehner, Frist, and McConnell would not act so hypercautiously if a majority of Americans favored impeaching Vice President Al Gore. Such a majority exists today for impeaching Cheney.
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There are Democratic Senators and Representatives here and there who pipe up every now and again and ask for more aggressive action — each a different vox clamantis in deserto. This timidity cannot be a personal, individual problem with 250 or so Democrats in Congress. It has to be structural. It’s a question, as it were, with an answer in economics or sociology not psychology.
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Is it how elections are bought? Is it how the media are run? Consultants? Lobbyists? Who wants this timidity and why are they so powerful?
I wondered the same thing in my write-up of the conversation Charley and I had with Kerry.
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I think maybe they are intimidated by the elephant echo chamber. They don’t want to get taken apart by Bill O’Reilly and talk radio. They also saw what happened to Howard Dean when he tried to run an aggressive campaign from the left.
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This, to me, demonstrates a failure of imagination. It is similar to the failure of CNN to respond to Fox News by going left (instead, as we all know, they went right and are now a watered down version of Fox with lower ratings). We progressives are strong, and getting stronger, powered in no small part by blogs. I think there is a real opportunity for Democrats to get more aggressive. But we need leaders who are willing to take risks and fully engage with the netroots while, at the same time, presenting a record of competence and achievement. In short, we need some national-level Deval Patricks đŸ™‚
With all due respect to my esteemed colleague David!
“All right, Senator Kerry, time to step up” Ha, ha, ha, ho,ho,ho. You have to be kidding. This jerk steps up only to make himself look good, after sniffing to see which way the wind is blowing. Some of you liberals are patheticallly naive.