More chickens coming home to roost in Bush Admin: Gonzales must resign now!

The political firestorm that broke out a few weeks ago over the controversial firing of eight U.S. attorneys has now engulfed the storied career of America’s first Latino Attorney General, Alberto R. Gonzales. And, as it is with all Washington scandals, it’s not the alleged crime – of firing them because they were deemed “unloyal Bushies” for prosecuting corrupt Republican politicians and campaign donors – that’s burning him. Rather, it’s the stupid cover up – of insisting that these attorneys with impeccable records were fired for being incompetent, and Gonzales then swearing to indignant Democrats (who, remember, now control Congress) that he had nothing to do with it.

Because, here’s how Gonzales deflected blame (and calls by Democrats and a growing number of very flammable Republicans for his resignation) for ordering these patently politically-motivated, though entirely-legal, firings:

As we can all imagine, in an organization of 110,000 people, I am not aware of every bit of information that passes through the halls of justice, nor am I aware of all decisions.

Therefore, I imagine he was “shocked, shocked” when documents released yesterday under threat of Congressional subpoenas revealed that Gonzales was not only aware of the “five-step plan” to fire these prosecutors, but that he actually “signed off” on it.

But no one should be shocked when he spins this damning revelation by lamenting that – because he has signed off on so many controversial, hair-brained and barely-legal Bush Administration plans as head of the Justice Department – we can all imagine the honest mistake he made by not recalling that he had signed off on this one too. Indeed, like he’s been saying ever since it started getting hot in the White House over these firings: “mistakes were made”….

Of course, given the Clinton precedent, I suppose his guilt now depends on whether his “mistake” was making a mistake or telling a lie. But, whatever the case, Gonzales must resign now for being either too clueless or too dishonest to continue serving as the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer…even at the pleasure of this president!

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Alberto Gonzales, US attorneys firings