Monday, August 27, 2007

Fredo Gets Whacked

Rumors were swirling over the weekend that Attorney General Gonzales was going to be out of his job and that Michael Chertoff was going to replace him.

Dunno if Chertoff is going to be picked to replace Fredo at DOJ, but Gonzales is gone:

WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 — ­ 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. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, the official said. His decision was not immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch near here.

...

The official said that the decision was Mr. Gonzales's and that the president accepted it grudgingly. At the same time, the official acknowledged that the turmoil over his tenure as Attorney General had made continuing difficult.

So now we turn to the battle over who will replace Gonzales. Congress is on recess. Can Bush avoid a fight over Gonzales' replacement by making a recess appointment? Clearly a recess appointment would be a huge "Fuck You!" to the Congress and the American people, but if memory serves correctly, Bush loves to say "Fuck you!" to people about as much as Dick Cheney does.



UPDATE: Listening to Joey Scar, Pat Buchanan, and Ana Marie Cox on MSNBC, it doesn't sound like they think a recess appointment is coming. They're talking about how difficult the confirmation hearings for Gonzo's replacement are going to be. We'll probably get a heads up from the White House about who Bush is going to pick. Pat Buchanan just said he thinks Chertoff would be a terrible choice because he would be seen as a Bush loyalist and what Bush needs to pick now is someone who is seen as independent and competent. Scarborough just noted that Bush has rarely picked anybody he doesn't already know to fill these kinds of positions (think Harriet Miers for Supreme Court.) We'll see.

Comments:
I was going to suggest we start guessing who will make it through the rest of the term. Sounds like it will be a picnic just replacing any losses.
 
I was struck by Gonzales' statement that the worst day he had experienced in Washington was better than the best day his father had ever had. That might be true for someone who viewed life in purely material terms, and who was totally enamored of the trappings of wealth and power, but for anyone with an ounce of substance, such an idea is patently false. As a father, the best days of my life are those I can be proud of my kids' character, and the next best days, those I can be happy with my own. Money and power never enter into the equation, never have, never will.

I don't know which might have been Gonzales' father's best day, but I do know what would have been his worst if he was unfortunate enough to live to see it -- watching his son say "I don't recall" sixty-someodd times in front of an investigating committee.
 
cartledge, I think all of the Texas Mafia members (Rove, Hughes, Scotty, Fredo, Bartlett) are gone now. I bet Bush himself is already packed and getting ready to go back to the ranch to drink himself to death in quiet.

Kicksiron, that's really well said! I may have to work that into a subsequent post.
 
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