And not a moment too soon. From the NYT:
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington…. Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the resignation had not yet been made public.
Word on the street is that Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff will take over. If that’s true, maybe Bush can arrange to nominate Chertoff on Wednesday, the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. After all, no ineptitude in the Bush administration goes unrewarded.
..will replace him with someone of color, so you can continue to employ a racist moniker when referring to the new AG.
…Speedy Gonzales will spend more time with his wife
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You better come home, Speedy Gonzales
Away from tannery row
Stop alla your a-drinkin’
With that floozie named Flo
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–Charo
Did she write it or just sing it? I remember watching her in black and white on Johnny Carson years back and thought she was so hot. I recently saw her on a reality program with Flavor Flav and she was VERY well preserved. My wife thought I was sick but she looked hot to me still. She must be 65 or more.
…it would be fun to see what Jon Stewart does with this resignation by Seedy Gonzales in the next few days.
From the Onion:
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“Good. Maybe now we can restore some dignity to the attorney general’s office and get a classy singer-songwriter type like John Ashcroft.”
… for the Congress elected last year to stop the erosion of civil liberties, by blocking any nominees for Attorney General as bad as Gonzales.
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Here’s a statement about it the ACLU of Massachusetts put out this morning.
http://salon.com/opi…
…why Speedy submitted his resignation
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(a) in August, which is when everyone is on vacation, and
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(b) while Congress is in recess, so that Bush can make a recess appointment, which does not require Congressional approval.
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The latter is the more important issue. The Bushians will be out before the recess appointments expire in any event. But they won’t need to go through Senatorial hearings to get their guy in office.
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That is the reason for Speedy’s resignation now. The Bushians were waiting for a point in time at which they could make a recess appointment.
Doesn’t take effect until September 17th, so unless I am mistaken I think that takes care of any possibility of a recess appointment.
I agree that timing it in the slowest news week of the year has to be deliberate, but wasn’t there some arrangement whereby Reid got a moratorium on recess appointments in return for not keeping the Senate nominally in session during the recess, which would have prevented them anyway? One could imagine the WH reneging on any such deal, of course. But how many appointments could they make in such a way?
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Josh Marshall seems to regard it as unlikely but not inconceivable.
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TPM quotes Fox quoting unnamed sources that Solicitor General Paul Clement, who becomes acting AG anyway, might be the permanent choice. As to Chertoff, quoting TPM:
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Late Update: As U.S. News’ “Washington Whispers” first reported over the weekend, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff is being floated as a possible permanent replacement for Gonzales. CNN is now reporting that Chertoff is the “likely” nominee. Considering that Chertoff presided over the Katrina disaster, his nomination as attorney general would be nothing short of unbelievable.
…I wouldn’t count on it deterring Bush declaring recess appointments.
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Irrespective of the recess appointment issue, it is likely that Chertoff would at least be appointed “acting AG” for pretty much the rest of Bush’s term.
bush can appoint someone before gonzales leaves? his resignation doesn;t go into effect until 9/17, at which time the senate will be back in session. i don’t see any room for recess appointments.
…But that’s where the “acting” comes into play.
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I’ve seen this kind of thing happen before, both in Republican adminstrations and in Democratic administrations. What is the time line? How long would it take to get a case against an administration’s appointing an “acting AG” to get up to the Supreme Court? Longer, I’d bet you, than the administration would remain in office.
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And the effect on the administration of the DoJ in the interim? Absolutely nothing. That’s reality.
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And, you know what? The Democrats in Congress are unlikely to do anything about it because they will use this as a paradigm for what they may want to do, too That is what is so hillarious about this Rep/Dem kubuki dance.
Apparently the acting AG has to be someone within the department who was confirmed to their current position by the Senate. Since the #2 and #3 people in the DoJ are currently interims or recess appointments or something, the #4 person Clement becomes the Acting AG. Clement seems to be a highly qualified lawyer (unlike AG) but still rather partisan. I read this morning, I forget where, that an Acting AG could serve for 210 days but that the clock would reset once a permanent nominee was sent up. So Bush could keep Clement in the acting position for most or all of his term without any Senate action and with the Senate in session, though this would probably be construed as violating his agreement with Reid about recess appointments.
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It’s not clear to me that Clement wouldn’t get confirmed. Nominating Chertoff, as is widely rumored, would open up unlimited discussion of Katrina in the hearings since Chertoff was head of DHS when that happened.
RAJ-
Why do you persist in using this offensive stereotype? It completely overshadows whatever else is in your posting.
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There are hundreds of things to revile, laugh at, sneer at, and be sarcstic about regarding Gonzales, and not a single one has anything to do with his ethnic background.
Please think about what you are doing and stop.
…I refer to Bush as Cheney’s Charley McCarthy (or Mortimer Snerd) If you don’t understand the context, do a google search.
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And, by the way, I will continue to refer to Gonzales as Speedy, whether or not it offends you.
or should I say olé
A Democratic congress can do something. All things take time. This would of never happened if the Republicans were still running things on the hill. So to Conyers and Leahy great job. I still hope they continue to push the attorney purge investigation.
Feinstein had the right idea — have some acceptable candidates in mind, and have them be rock-solid, dependable law-and-order types, not committed loyalists to either party. Comey is the right type, but he’s probably not the guy, through no fault of his own.
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Chertoff would be an outrage. “Bringing Katrina-style management to the Department of Justice!”
… on loyalty needs to demonstrate that they are capable and willing to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute the administration that nominated them. Thats the smell test I have in mind.
Bush doesn’t appoint someone that Fenstein likes. Rather, he appoints someone Feinstein HATES. John Yoo, maybe. Or Tom DeLay.
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Then we’ll hear about how the lack of an AG at this crucial time is causing loss of life in the GWOT. Then we’ll see if this strategy has any life left in it when the president is less popular than diarreha.
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I would regard the appointment of an “acceptable” candidate to be an admission of lameduckhood by the wite house. Even if true, they’ll never admit it.
Does anyone like Chertoff?
who the replacement for Fredo will be, beyond what I read at my various moonbat sources.
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There’s plenty of speculation as to why now, but whatever the reasons, the next AG is going to jump into the middle of a shitstorm.
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Bush could take the offensive tack as you suggest, that’s been his MO, so it wouldn’t shock me. Remember John Bolton at the U.N?
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But the only thing that the WH really needs the next AG to do is cover the presidents ass. For the next 16 months, that’s what they need. Obstruct, lie, plead ignorance if necessary, just don’t cave in. The one thing that Bush has always done throughout his career is have someone protect his candy ass, and that’s exactly what they need now. Morale in the DOJ can’t get any worse, so what’s the difference?
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Run out the clock, pardon if necessary.
But the only thing that the WH really needs the next AG to do is cover the presidents ass.
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When I was an inmate in the midwest (parents insisted on living there), it was made clear that the primary thing that the Chicago (sorry, Dem) machine wanted to keep hold of was the elected district attorney position. They didn’t really care about the other positions, it was the DA position.
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For obvious reasons. If they could control the DA, they wouldn’t be prosecuted.
Are there any people with experience as federal prosecutors not presently employed by the DoJ? Preferably very recent experience?