Some thoughts on the Gonzales hearings

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales faced protesters while testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Doug Mills/The New York Times.

I should say something about the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that took place yesterday with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifying. There is a lot of coverage that has already been written about the hearings. You can find some of the mainstream media stories here with the New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC News, McClatchy News, ABC News, And CNN News here. Some of the best blog coverage on Gonzales can be found on TPM Muckraker, Think Progress, Carpetbagger Report, Crooks and Liars, and even Firedog Lake. I'm still going through this stuff.

I think what we have to understand here is really why did Gonzales testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee--and I'm not talking about the congressional subpoenas here. Gonzales went before the committee and told the senators that he couldn't remember anything about the attorney firings 64 times during the hearing. It was a frustrating day for poor old Abu Gonzales. But I think what you have to understand about the Gonzales hearing is that Gonzales went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to lie in order to protect the Bush White House, and Karl Rove, from their own involvement into this attorney scandal. The Bush White House was involved in this purging of the U.S. Attorney's Office, and they were probably involved in a cover-up operation regarding the missing emails, and the use of RNC email servers by White House officials--can you say Karl Rove using 95 percent of his email on RNC servers? There is more here. According to this Think Progress post on the hearings, 417 White House officials and 30 Justice Department officials are eligible to have discussions about criminal cases. The Bush White House exerted enormous political control over the Department of Justice. And Abu Gonzales couldn't remember anything about that issue.

Alberto Gonzales is the latest scapegoat here--the latest fall guy to protect Karl Rove and President Bush from the exposure of their own involvement in this scandal. It is the reason for Gonzales abysmal performance yesterday. What is so ironic is that President Bush was pleased with the Gonzales testimony here. Gonzales did his job as the latest Bush administration scapegoat to place the blame on this attorney scandal. And if Alberto Gonzales does resign as attorney general, then you can bet that the Bush administration will try to place the entire blame for this purge directly on Gonzales. And the Bush administration will be just as pleased with a Gonzales resignation, even though they won't say it.

That is what these hearings are about.