Alberto Gonzalez resignation betting pool.

[Skeezix]

I'll take next Thursday, March 22.

[catbirdseat]

Latest fall guy for the machinations of Karl Rove.

 

I'm no Republican, but I have to say this whole thing with the prosecuting attorney firings is much to do about nothing. They work at the pleasure of the Administration. The only thing that is unusual here is it was done during a second term. There is no law that says they can't be fired during a term.

 

They all got their jobs when Bush came into office, the same way their predesessors got their jobs when Bill Clinton was elected.

 

I guess the fear on the part of Congress is that prosecutors will become the tools of the Administration, used to go after political enemies.

 

Nominally, the reason for the firings is that voter fraud was not agressively persued in 2004. That was some time ago. Why use that now as the reason to fire?

 

I am just very glad that Harriet Myers did not become a Supreme Court justice. Her idea was to fire all of them.

[Lars Larceny]

It'll be Friday, May 25th at 6:00pm. That way he leaves on a 3 day weekend and will be all but forgotten by the following Tuesday.

[Dave_Schuldt]

Friday 3/30

[Crux]

I don't think Bush and Rove dare see Gonzales out of office.

[Clavote]

Is the AG being deported or something?

[Skeezix]

I guess I was wrong to think he'd go quickly. He has to take some time to make himself look like a complete fool first. I give him another two weeks.

[Skeezix]

Damn. Fucker won't budge.

[Crux]

Gonzalez is the consigliore of the Bush crime family -- as long as he's alive and Bush is in office, there's no way he's going anywhere unless forcibly removed by Congress. Bet on that.

[selkirk]

It would have been less controversial had they brought in a completely new batch of US attorneys. While it's true the the USA's serve at the pleasure of the president, once they become members of the USDOJ, they are not supposed to represent the interests of the party or the president, they are supposed to represent the interests of the people and of justice. While they do take direction from the president, they must be allowed to operate independently in order to remain credible in the eyes of the court. And the Federal judges, while appointed by an administration, pretty much answer to no one.

 

Bush Co. and Gonzales were within their rights to fire the USA's, for whatever reasons they saw fit.

 

The reasons being completely partisan BS however stinks to high heaven, and potentially throws a bad light on every election fraud trial in the near future.

 

Bill Clinton was within his rights to as he pleases with consenting interns.

 

Lying in front of Congress while under oath is different story altogether. So either he didn't know what was going on in his own department, in which case his ability to manage the USDOJ is in serious question and he should still step down, or knowingly lied to Congress and should be prosecuted for perjury. Not to mention his inability to remember his own conversations, and orders has been successfully used as a defense, as to why a criminal on trial shouldn't have to remember his own actions.

 

Gonzales is as sleazy as they come, and party line, partisan stooge. :tdown:

And since he's a partisan stooge, all he cares about is making Bush and company happy and doing their bidding, so he has no incentive to step down. Regardless of whether or not he has a shred of credibility left anywhere.

 

P.S. Sometimes having inside connections at the USDOJ can be interesting

[Crux]

HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS:

 

COUNT I: Application of Geneva Conventions; Definition of Torture

 

On 1/25/02, Gonzales wrote a memo to President Bush authorizing the commission of war crimes by claiming the war against terrorism "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."

 

On 8/1/02, Gonzales commissioned a memo to President Bush which defined "torture" only as an interrogation that causes "injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions." This definition is contrary to The War Crimes Act and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Unusual or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a treaty ratified by the United States. Although this memo was retracted on 12/30/04, it remained in effect for over two years and authorized an unknown number of acts of torture.

 

Gonzales knew or should have known that, pursuant to memoranda written by, commissioned or concurred in by him, prisoners in United States custody would be subjected to willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment; and great suffering or serious injury to body or health, in violation of The War Crimes Act.

 

COUNT II: Military Commissions

 

Between 9/11/01 and 11/13/01, Gonzales helped draft the Military Order establishing the Military Commissions, signed by President Bush on 11/13/01. This order mandated conduct by members of United States military forces which constitute war crimes under The War Crimes Act.

 

Gonzales knew or should have known that the Military Commissions, in whose creation he participated, would deprive prisoners in United States custody who will be tried before them, of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the Third Geneva Convention and Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions.

 

On 1/18/07 Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the U.S. Constitution does not provide the right to habeas corpus, but rather only bars the government from taking that right away (except in the case of rebellion or invasion). This logic would overturn many of the rights that U.S. law has based on the Constitution for over two centuries, as well as overturning rights positively expressed in the Sixth Amendment.

 

COUNT III: Illegal Domestic Surveillance

 

Since the inception (date unknown) of the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretap program, Gonzales has defined, condoned, concealed and defended the administration's continued violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.

 

On 2/6/06, Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force enacted by Congress on 9/18/01 authorized warrantless domestic surveillance. However, the secret programs may have been launched earlier, the AUMF did not grant the President the right to violate FISA and the Fourth Amendment, and Congress has since amended FISA four times without granting the President those rights. On 1/17/07, Gonzales informed Congress the illegal wiretapping was approved by an unnamed Judge of the FISA Court without providing any evidence that illegal acts had actually ended. On 7/24/07, Gonzales informed Congress there was more than one secret program.

 

COUNT IV: Corrupting the Department of Justice

 

Investigations by the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in 2007 established a pattern of firing U.S. Attorneys who failed to implement the corrupt plans of the White House to steal elections through highly-publicized prosecutions of non-existent voter fraud. At the same time, U.S. Attorneys who filed such prosecutions kept their jobs.

 

COUNT V: Perjury

 

In multiple appearances before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees in 2006 and 2007, Gonzales deliberately misled Congress about the firing of U.S. Attorneys and the warrantless wiretapping program.

[lummox]

aint gonna happen. and the dems realize that complaining too much only makes the shit stick to them.

[AlpineK]

I'm not so sure. I know for years Gonzalez has been cleaning up a lot of details for GW. I figure that's why George has kept him around for so long, but now it's too the point where a ton of Republicans want him gone. I'd say that Gonzalez will have to step down pretty soon. I suppose it's not impossible that congress will indite him with backing from the Republicans, but it's a little unlikely.

 

It will make for good theater if congress does bring charges against him.

[billcoe]

yup, I had put a Jackson on him staying the full term, but I'd pay $10 to walk out of that bet now, it ain't lookin so good.

 

You cannot lie to congress when they are already pissed at ya.

[Jim]

Gotta wonder why he would want to stay. Your staff hates you, even the Repubs are snarking at you, and your public image is in the toilet. I guess it also says something about the man's character that he was willing to make a complete fool of himself, more than once, in televised public hearings.

[tvashtarkatena]

"Yo no recuerdo nada, Senor Senator. Aye theen I wuz oat seek dat day or suntheen."

[Rad]

January 19th, 2009 (when the admin changes over).

[Skeezix]

I was off by a few months... Never underestimate the staying power of a weasel.

[snugtop]

Monday, August 27, 2007 !!!

 

:moondance:

[billcoe]

Paying up.

 

Shit

[Dechristo]

you were off by a little more than half a year.

 

you got the calendar year correct, though.

[mattp]

Cue Fairweather or Kakadsky to come on with some scathing reminder that Gonzalez has not yet been indicted for any actual crime, and an argument how all of this is just some partisan witch hunt.

[Peter_Puget]

history repeats.......

[Doug]

Parhaps Rove figured it was best that all of the excess baggage that the GOP/Bush Adminsistration has should be jettisoned as early as possible prior to the 08 elections.

[Adam13]

Gonzalez must have remembered the answers to all those questions congress asked him and realized he was goin down one way or the other.

 

and didnt Bush's Brain resign. tho he may have left a list of ways to react to each problem for the administation.

Edited August 27, 2007 by Adam13