May 15, 2007 by lonbud

Trouble Comin’ Every Day

Beleaguered Attorney General Alberto “Fredo” Gonzales was back on Capitol Hill last week, where he continued to deny that he or anyone else he could think of placed the names of up to nine United States Attorneys on a list of Justice Department employees who were forced to resign their positions last winter after having been identified by “senior leadership of the department” as being insufficiently loyal to White House political objectives.

Dahlia Lithwick at Slate has perhaps the best account of the transcendental absurdities issuing from George W. Bush’s consigliere these days, but one thing is abundantly clear: the Bush administration’s Ship of State is now in a race against time.

The only question is whether the hubris, corruption, venality, and incompetence of its Captain and crew will sink it before the nation has an opportunity to choose a new president in the Fall of 2008.

One might wonder how it is possible for Mr. Gonzales to remain in his job, having been caught lying to Congress initially about his involvement in the so-called “purge” at Justice, then amending his testimony and accepting “full responsibility” (whatever that means) for his “misstatements.”

In what other serious government would the chief law enforcement officer be permitted to retain his post after testifying that he couldn’t remember anything about conversations, meetings, document exchanges, and decisions that led to the removal and replacement of career civil servants under his direct supervision?

Why on earth would a man whose honor and dedication have been described as beyond reproach not resign — or his boss not fire him — after publicly defying requests for the production of documents from Congress, or after admitting that he hadn’t had the first conversation about the pertinent matters with any of his deputies, former deputies, or superiors?

Comes today the news that Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, the #2 person at the Department of Justice, is resigning his position in what he calls a “long-overdue” return to the private sector so he can pay the bills being rung up by his two college-age children. Aides to Mr. McNulty, however, have told the Associated Press his resignation was “hastened” by anger at his being linked to the firings at the center of the imbroglio at Justice.

Apparently, Mr. McNulty was indeed kept out of the loop by the “senior leadership of the department” who orchestrated the unprecedented purge of career U.S. Attorneys last year, and is among a long list of individuals publicly absolved by Mr. Gonzales of responsibility for the purge. Included on the list are:

1. President Bush
2. Vice President Cheney
3. Attorney General Gonzales himself
4. (now former) Deputy Attorney General McNulty
5. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey
6. Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis
7. Kyle Sampson, former Chief-of-Staff to Mr. Gonzales

In a testy exchange last week with Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), Mr. Gonzales provoked the following:

Wexler: “…you made a decision, according to yourself, as to accepting the termination list. But you’ve also said you didn’t [make] the list. So somebody else, other than you, other than the president, other than the vice president, other than every deputy attorney general that’s come to this committee, [made] the list. But with all due respect, Mr. Attorney General, you won’t tell the American people who [made] the list [of attorneys] to be fired. It’s a national secret, isn’t it?”

Gonzales: “Congressman, if I knew the answer to that question I would provide you the answer. I have not spoken with the individuals involved …”

Wexler: “Are you the attorney general? Do you run the Department of Justice?”

Inquiring minds want to know.

Update:

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey relates a riveting tale of the night White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and then-White House Attorney Alberto Gonzales tried to coerce a dazed and drugged Attorney General John Ashcroft to sign off on President Bush’s secret National Security Agency wiretapping program from the hospital bed where Mr. Ashcroft lay stricken with a life-threatening case of pancreatitis.

Mr. Ashcroft and the Department had previously concluded the wiretapping program was at odds with the law, and he refused to comply with the senior White House officials’ entreaties that fateful night. And while President Bush eventually agreed to amend the wiretap program to address Justice Department concerns, Mr. Comey’s testimony today illuminates the ethical principles upon which the nation’s chief law enforcement officer is willing to operate in the service of achieving his master’s political ends.