The Incompetence Of Our Attorney General & His Boss
Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez took his place on the hot seat before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday and could not seem to recall anything of relevance regarding his involvement and decision-making relative to the firing of eight US Attorneys. While he offered his assurances that nothing improper occurred, he could not answer the simplest of questions regarding the chronology of events, the criteria employed to evaluate performance, or the criteria used to select those US Attorneys that were fired. Gonzalez patently denied any political motivations or criteria being involved, but the evidence presented to the Committee, and by the Committee members, clearly demonstrated the likelihood of a partisan political process.
The answers and arguments presented by Gonzalez were so circuitous in nature that not one Senator accepted his statements at face value and only one senator--a deeply entrenched member of the Religious and Political Right--found any rationale for defending Gonzalez and President Bush. But given the apparent emphasis upon choosing and promoting US Attorneys based upon their religious and ideological affiliation, neither Gonzalez or Bush can genuinely deny that a partisan, political process designed to impact the manner in which justice is administered in our nation and in our courts. Those attorneys having affiliation with Regent University, Liberty University, Brigham Young University and a couple other ultra-conservative Christian Right institutions have systematically been chosen, promoted and protected.
What is really interesting is that a majority of those graduating from these ultra-conservative Christian Right law schools--with possibly the exception of those coming out of BYU--have consistently performed poorly on the various bar exams and have not come out of law practices of particular note or merit. In contrast, the performance of those US Attorneys who were sacked was particularly exceptional and effective, but sometimes in conflict with the extreme ideological bent of the Bush gang.
Gonzalez argued that all standing US Attorneys serve at the discretion of the President through the advisory role of the US Attorney General. However, it was pointed out to Gonzalez that career US Attorneys have been historically immune from such politically motivated manipulation as has been the case in these firings. Gonzalez asserted that nothing inappropriate, illegal or political occurred... yet he could not recall dates, times, reports, performance evaluations, the use of any particular criteria, the evaluation and/or selection process, etc.
One media report indicated that Gonzalez used the phrase "I cannot recall," or something similar over 100 times during the few hours of testimony before the Committee. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show documented only 45 such uses of these phrases, but did so in such a manner as to demonstrate the utter incompetence of Gonzalez as an attorney that spent over a week preparing for this appearance, and as the Chief legal officer of our nation.
Given that President Bush has publicly endorsed all that Gonzo Gonzalez has done, including his performance before the Committee, we have to question, once again, Bush's competence and/or his intent upon politically manipulating our system of justice in accordance with his religious and fascist ideologies.
How long will it be before we recognize this incompetence and deliberate violation of oath and office and call for impeachment of the whole lot of bumbling and meddling fools? Must we wait for even more tragic loss of lives, more injustice and the utter erosion of our Constitution before the House impeaches Bush and company and the Senate affirms the impeachment with removal? How long will we fools suffer these fools?
REFERENCES:
The Fantasy Behind the Scandal
On a Very Hot Seat With Little Cover and Less Support
Prepared Remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales at the Senate Judicary Oversight Hearing - 19 April 2007
Senators Chastise Gonzales at Hearing: Members of His Own Party Pile On as Attorney General Defends Firings
The answers and arguments presented by Gonzalez were so circuitous in nature that not one Senator accepted his statements at face value and only one senator--a deeply entrenched member of the Religious and Political Right--found any rationale for defending Gonzalez and President Bush. But given the apparent emphasis upon choosing and promoting US Attorneys based upon their religious and ideological affiliation, neither Gonzalez or Bush can genuinely deny that a partisan, political process designed to impact the manner in which justice is administered in our nation and in our courts. Those attorneys having affiliation with Regent University, Liberty University, Brigham Young University and a couple other ultra-conservative Christian Right institutions have systematically been chosen, promoted and protected.
What is really interesting is that a majority of those graduating from these ultra-conservative Christian Right law schools--with possibly the exception of those coming out of BYU--have consistently performed poorly on the various bar exams and have not come out of law practices of particular note or merit. In contrast, the performance of those US Attorneys who were sacked was particularly exceptional and effective, but sometimes in conflict with the extreme ideological bent of the Bush gang.
Gonzalez argued that all standing US Attorneys serve at the discretion of the President through the advisory role of the US Attorney General. However, it was pointed out to Gonzalez that career US Attorneys have been historically immune from such politically motivated manipulation as has been the case in these firings. Gonzalez asserted that nothing inappropriate, illegal or political occurred... yet he could not recall dates, times, reports, performance evaluations, the use of any particular criteria, the evaluation and/or selection process, etc.
One media report indicated that Gonzalez used the phrase "I cannot recall," or something similar over 100 times during the few hours of testimony before the Committee. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show documented only 45 such uses of these phrases, but did so in such a manner as to demonstrate the utter incompetence of Gonzalez as an attorney that spent over a week preparing for this appearance, and as the Chief legal officer of our nation.
Given that President Bush has publicly endorsed all that Gonzo Gonzalez has done, including his performance before the Committee, we have to question, once again, Bush's competence and/or his intent upon politically manipulating our system of justice in accordance with his religious and fascist ideologies.
How long will it be before we recognize this incompetence and deliberate violation of oath and office and call for impeachment of the whole lot of bumbling and meddling fools? Must we wait for even more tragic loss of lives, more injustice and the utter erosion of our Constitution before the House impeaches Bush and company and the Senate affirms the impeachment with removal? How long will we fools suffer these fools?
REFERENCES:
The Fantasy Behind the Scandal
On a Very Hot Seat With Little Cover and Less Support
Prepared Remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales at the Senate Judicary Oversight Hearing - 19 April 2007
Senators Chastise Gonzales at Hearing: Members of His Own Party Pile On as Attorney General Defends Firings
posted by Jim Downey at 3:58 AM
1 Comments:
The 45 "Don't recall" count by Jon was only for the morning session. There were more in the afternoon too. 100 sounds about right.
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