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.

Earlier this month, at a news conference, Mr. Bush dismissed accusations that Mr. Gonzales had had stonewalled or misled a congressional inquiry. “We’re watching a political exercise,” Mr. Bush said. “I mean, this is a man who has testified, he’s sent thousands of papers up there. There’s no proof of wrong.”

As recently as Sunday afternoon, Mr. Gonzales was denying through his press spokesman, Brian Roehrkass, that he intended to leave.

Maybe he didn’t remember he gave Bush his resignation – on Friday?



  1. James Hill says:

    You liberals sure do get worked up over this stuff. When the right wins in ’08, will you finally move to Canada?

  2. MikeN says:

    Wow, bobbo, the right could have used you when Clinton was being impeached for perjury. They could have thrown out the whole executive branch by that standard.

  3. grog says:

    bobbo, james hill and miken — i’m not worked up at all thank you very much, i just think that a man who’s responsible for the entire justice department who then goes before his oversight committee and claims to forget everything is either completely inept or a liar — either way he doesn’t deserve to run so valuable a government asset

    that’s all.

  4. Mr. Fusion says:

    #25, Mike,

    Wow, contempt of Congress. Only he didn’t lie about anything, so they can forget about the perjury charges. How he loses his law license is beyond me.

    Aahhh, Mikey, Mikey, Mikey, how could anyone expect less from you.

    He refused to turn over documents subpoenaed by Congress.

    He lied to Congress when he said the “Ashcroft hospital visit” involved a different matter than everyone else said it did.

    He lied to Congress when he said he had no knowledge of the US Attorneys firing and replacement when several other DoJ people all said he did.

    Then there is the matter of the warrant less wiretaps. His being a party to a crime is sufficient to lose his license. And it won’t matter if Bush pardons him or not, just committing the crime is enough. In fact, if he accepts the pardon, that is admitting the guilt.

    *

    Will that do it for you? I’m quite sure there are several other grounds that could be cited as well. In case you don’t understand it, lawyers are expected to uphold a very high standard before the courts. That includes not misleading, lying, falsifying documents, interfering or obstructing the court’s business, etc. For all intents and purposes, a Congressional Committee has all the rights, privileges, and accounting as a court.

    Ya wanna rethink Rush Limbaugh’s spiel?

  5. Rabble Rouser says:

    Gee, the Cons sure get bothered about all this… Do you think they’ll move to another planet when Clinton wins in ’08? Or will they go crawl back under the rock they came up from?

  6. MikeN says:

    Grog, I’ll grant you he’s inept, and shouldn’t be attorney general. What bothers me is that it seems every attorney general in a Republican administration gets attacked.

  7. MikeN says:

    I’ll grant you he refused to turn over subpoenaed docs, but as for the lies, that’s just not the case. Even the New York Times conceded the point on the meeting with Ashcroft.

  8. grog says:

    #36 MikeN — it seems every attorney general in a Republican administration gets attacked
    i would point out that reno got roasted plenty by a republican congress back in the day, but that’s not the point

    the bush administration brought their current siege upon themselves — they came to town and started ramming their objectives down everyone’s throat, continually sought to circumvent and belittle the congress, pushed to pack the court and politicize the justice department, and basically told anyone in congress who spoke up to fuck off what did they expect would happen?

    their attempt a bloodless coup failed , and now they’re stuck in a quagmire, (just like iraq) and it turns out the congressional branch of our government simply won’t be cowed that easily

  9. MikeN says:

    Grog, that Congress just expanded the NSA surveillance authority.
    Reno got roasted plenty too, so maybe it is bipartisan. Can’t be sure until we get some more Dem AGs. But Ashcroft was branded a fascist before 9/11, and all the Republicans get tagged as such.

  10. ECA says:

    This is like haveing a MOVING target that has its own body guard…
    Every time we AIM at Bush, someone JUMPS into the way, and takes a bullet(wishful hoping).

    “The BUCK stops here”, is NOT in this presidents Vocabulary(c student, not much there anyway). Every time we shoot a broadside at him, its like Someone rushes OUT in a Dingy, and catches the ball. Someone he put into the JOB… He gets fired or QUITS, and we try again.

    We arnt getting the truth behind these people. And SOMETHINg has to be going on in the background….

  11. moss says:

    Times like this I get tempted to do a little video hacking. You know, take Gonzales’ farewell speech – then, slowly, diminish his dialogue on one channel – and spot another track, like, on some Marines in the background and have them start humming the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

    You could bring it to a crescendo just like Mickey Rooney remembering John Wayne in WW2 agitprop.

    Bring a tear to MikeN’s eye.

  12. GregA says:

    MikeN,

    The problem with your theory is that they were branded fascists before the took office because they did fascist things before they took the office. It isn’t like Ashcroft showed up out of nowhere without a record.

    In fact the reason why people like you like Ashcroft, Bush and Gonzales is because they are fascists.

    That makes you a fascists as well BTW. You just don’t like the history that suggests that fascists regimes tend to implode and kill a bunch of people in the process. Basically exactly as has happened to Bush.

    But go ahead, keep on believe that your fundamentally flawed theory of government can somehow be made to work, and ignore that a very basic premise of fascism is dismantling the central government and handing it over to private entities. Fascism doesn’t work because it is designed not to work.

    Maybe I can put it in terms using code words you will understand…

    You might complain that Feminism has destroyed the family structure. That is because Feminism HAS destroyed the family structure. However it isn’t a failing of feminism, that is what feminism was designed to do, so that women were not oppressed into one codified way to live their life.

    Another way to look at it from your stilted viewpoint. Back in the 90’s conservatives complained ALL THE FING time that the military was for killing people and blowing things up. Now look at Iraq. Mission Accomplished! Can we stop killing people and blowing things up now?

  13. tallwookie says:

    ya know – when I heard this while driving into work this morning, I wondered what kinda crazy shit you guys would have to say about it – thanks for making it enjoyable 😉

    I think its like fleas hopping off of a dying dog – more and more as time goes by….

    btw, my commute back took 30 min extra cuz Seattle closed 405N so the president didnt have to deal with traffic – lucky bastard 😛

  14. doug says:

    Gonzo was forced to resign because he was on the verge of exposing a vast ring of Republican preverts. Mark Foley was just the tip of the iceberg:

    http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/19763-1.html

  15. tikiloungelizard says:

    Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya, Al. Yet another Bush crony hired for his loyalty and not his competency. The only competent people in the Bush administration are/were Cheney and Rove, and I only say that because they have been so competent at being evil.

  16. nightstar says:

    All this means is that bush will have to go shopping for a new poodle.

  17. MikeN says:

    Wow, GregA, thanks for the wonderful definition of fascism. Proves my theory that like right-wing, fascism stands for whatever liberals don’t like.
    I think the traditional definition involves nationalism and everyone serving the state. Also, it involves a confluence of big labor, big government, and big business.

  18. art says:

    I guess, Bush is finally cracking down on those immigrants …

  19. Li says:

    Naysaying aside, this is a good thing, because it removes a major impediment to real oversight, and forces hearings in order to approve a new attorney general. That is, if the Democrats have the spine to take advantage of this event, which they have shown little sign of so far. So sad that one of our two parties has lost its mind, and the other has lost its will.


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