From The Paper Chase (U of Pitt law):
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, predicted Thursday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will resign from his post at the conclusion of current investigations into the allegedly-political firings of federal prosecutors. Specter’s comments followed others made by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) Wednesday, who suggested that by remaining in his position, Gonzales was harming the Justice Department. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) concurred, telling the Associated Press that it was noteworthy that Gonzales is spending more time on Capitol Hill defending himself than working as the Attorney General.
While some had believed that pressure for Gonzales’ resignation was beginning to subside, Tuesday’s testimony by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey has reignited calls for him to step down. Comey described an incident in 2004 when then White House Counsel Gonzales attempted to pressure a hospitalized then-Attorney General John Ashcroft into reauthorizing the warrantless domestic wiretap laws. Gonzales has been heavily supported by President Bush throughout the firings scandal. AP has more.
These charges have been, in turn, cynical, absurd, and transparently political—eg., Gonzales “pressured” John Ashcroft how, exactly? By threatening to snuff him with a pillow?—but given the way the White House has been capitulating lately (where’s the Libby pardon? where was the prominent defense of Paul Wolfowitz? how is “amnesty” for illegals going to do anything other than increase the clout of identity politics, and provide the Democrats with a labor-friendly majority for at least one generation?), I don’t doubt that this is coming.
Which means that come election time, the Democrats, led by Howard Dean, will be furiously spinning the GOP’s “culture of corruption” (on the bright side, this might save us from having to hear about the “failed economy” and the “plight of the homeless,” thank Christ)—aided, of course, by a media that ignores the actual trangressions of Reid, Feinstein, Jimmy Carter, Sandy Berger, etc, in favor of trumped up charges leveled by book peddlers like Joe Wilson, Richard Clarke, and George Tenet. And the GOP will have done virtually nothing to fight back.
In fact, they’ve been running scared, many of them worrying more about their own reelection chances than about defending the principles their constituencies espouse.
But hey. Hillary’s got fat ankles, right? So that oughta even the score.
Bob Owens is depressed. Ace is feeling vindictive. Me? I’m just hoping Bush doesn’t try to get Gonzales on the Supreme Court once he’s finished at Attorney General.
Strategery.
Yeah, if I let it get to me, I’d probably feel down. But you know what? If the GOP can’t do better than that, I’m sorry, but I just can’t care too much.
I care about principles, not the party.
It’s probably akin to the way you can now smear someone by quoting them verbatim and in context.
Absolutely. While you were writing your comment, I was adding a line about that very thing.
The only problem is, a Democrat president and Congress could really, truly fuck things up.
God. I lived through Carter once. I can’t go through that again.
It’s the fallacy of proof and the tyranny of fact, Pablo.
So bourgeois and Enlightenment-y.
Spit.
“I’m just hoping Bush doesn’t try to get Gonzales on the Supreme Court once he’s finished at Attorney General.”
From your lips to God’s ears and DITTO, DITTO, DITTO!
Mostly I blame Arlen Specter. He’s just so gay.
how is “amnesty†for illegals going to do anything other than increase the clout of identity politics, and provide the Democrats with a labor-friendly majority for at least one generation?)
I think this has been a hobby-horse for GWB going back to his days as Governor of Texas. I don’t think his line “Family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande” is new.
I think the Republican Senators who want to get rid of Gonzales want to do so for this reason rather than any of the old ones. Why? This reason looks like bullshit (I think the others don’t, and some in the GOP agree,) the fact that it’s bullshit might make Gonzales (and the GOP) look better in the long run, and these Senators don’t want to run in a party where you have to pretend not to know the President and the Attorney General, too. November 2006 was a scary month for these guys, so they want to do what they can to get Gonzales to resign for whatever reason.
Doesn’t he have any college-age children to worry about?
It is kind of shitty to let millions of people sneak in, give them jobs, and then whimsically toss them over the Rio Grande. You didn’t like it when your psycho ex acted that way.
As an attorney, I find Gonzales’ and Card’s behavior quite shocking in the professional sense, though pretty much in keeping with their character as political loyalists, rather than principled conservatives.
That a coterie of prominent Federalist Society-associated attorneys – Ashcroft, Comey, Olson, Goldsmith and crew resigned from Justice shortly thereafter, with the implication that it was caused by Gonzales’ and Card’s disrespect for the rule of law, does not shock me in the least.
Arlen Specter should have been thrown under the bus during the 2004 primary. He’s a God-damned backbiting son of a bitch. He’s always been a God-damned backbiting son of a bitch, and he always will be a God-damned backbiting son of a bitch.
The least the GOP could have done for this country back then is force him to be a God-damned backbiting son of a bitch back home in whatever sorry burgh he calls home in Pennsylvania.
Come on McGehee, don’t hold back. Let it out, tell us how you really feel.
I’ve wondered for years why the GOP allows scum like Specter, Chaffey, Snow, etc. to claim to be Republicans. Damn it, if these people can’t stand up for their party then they aren’t really in the party now are they.
Well, Specter & Friends invariably do their thing under the guise of elevating principle above party. So mostly I think that kind of talk is not helpful. I say why choose?
RC,
I guess you don’t need them now that you’re in the minority. Maybe you could have traded them for one Senator from Connecticut, a bridge to somewhere and two Representatives to be named later, but that deal’s probably off the table now.
And also isn’t it time about now to recall the whole Soros-funded Main Street Republican farce? How gay is that? And dangerous. Gay and dangerous.
Here’s the list of Main Streeters. Don’t ask me why Chuck Hagel doesn’t want to join their little club. I guess he’s just too pretty.
Jeff,
I think the ‘sphere is overreacting a bit in response to the immigration bill.
Ponder this: we offer up amnesty to the illegals now in-country, then we shut the border. It’s a two-step maneuvre. The proposed bill achieves the first, and does nothing to foreclose the latter.
This matters.
Put another way, this bill could be the sweet before the sour. And judging from the tone of the online discussions, I think the sour is looking more certain than not to follow the sweet.
So…respectfully, chill out con’s. The sky is not falling.
Oh, and on the topic of “the fence,” one barrier to its construction is our border-state’s environmentalists. The chain-link fence wouldn’t pass the stringent environmental impact regulations in the Sonoran or Mohave Desert counties of California, Arizona and New Mexico.
I blame it on the _____________!
Testimony that the White House Counsel was advocating on behalf of the President has reignited calls for his resignation?
Just what percentage of the population has now officially gone bat-shit fucking crazy? Should I load up on survival gear and head for Idaho? I mean WTF?!
This whole “shutting the border” thing. Es muy facil, no?
It achieves the first on the promise of the latter.
Goodness, Pelosi and Reid would never break a promise, would they?
This time, Lucy won’t pull the football away.
I’m guessing that Card and Gonzalez felt the intelligence program was that important.
Look at the timing.
It was the night before the Madrid bombings. My guess is that background chatter on “something happening” was huge and they didn’t want the program to lack DoJ stamp of approval.
The blogosphere didn’t exactly go into overdrive either.
Flip those around, and then we can talk. You fix the leak first, then deal with the mess it’s made.
We’ve tried it the other way, and look where that’s gotten us.
There’s been plenty of warning this gang was going to fuck things up. The best thing they have to stand on is shifting their war policy onto the soldiers.
BE more oblique. BECOME the opacity.
But whatever you do, don’t be literal. chris will give up.
BECAUSE OF THE TRUTHINESS!!!
tw: sum of the parts63
Depressing, no? Living in the Land of Nod as I do (Philadelphia—the home of Arlen Spector) I spend way too much of my daytime defending the Bush Admin and Repubs.
But, in my secret heart of hearts, after I put on my jammies and climb into bed, and lie in bed staring at the ceiling for hours and hours and hours, I say to myself, “Geez, this administration is totally FUBAR.” Why do I defend these putzes? They do nothing, NOTHING, to defend themselves.
If they won’t defend themselves, it sure as hell makes you wonder why. They choose to sow more seeds of doubt of their veracity and truthiness.
And this just in:
Cankles/Obama 42
Rudy/Romney 3
I’m moving to Montserrat
Spector is just playing the look at me game to keep people from looking at the total mess Pa in in. Isn’t the city of brotherly love fast becoming the murder capital of the world. I think Phillie and Baltimore are in a race for the honor. They have already, in fact, bypassed Bagdad for the honor. Who made fun of McCain for saying it was safe walking the streets of Bagdad? He would have been 100% correct if he had specified safer than walking the streets of Phillie or Baltimore. Lost the number of murders in Phillie but it was more than the 109 murders so far this year in Baltimore. Detroit has lost count of the murders themselves, on purpose. All of these cities are and have been in democrat hands for years. Pick a city, pick the number of murders. If it 1000% higher than average it’s a democrat city. Too bad most democrats can’t read past the 3rd grade level after 4 years of college or they would see this and move someplace safe, maybe Bagdad.
Wake up dhimmi’s and quit smacking your lips. What you’re being fed is pure BS.
I will gladly defend Bush even if it seems like he doesn’t defend himself. I’m big like that. And also cause he’s brought more freedom to more people in six years than I have like ever. He’s big like that.
Shall I tell you what I’m big like?
******
Fuck. I couldn’t keep a straight face.
The problem is that the white house (I’m sorry, can I type that?; it’s, like, so, I don’t know, exclusive, maybe, of the other houses that are, well, sorta, colored,….WAIT, NOT THAT SORT OF “COLORED”; ok, anyway, you get it, right?) can’t, won’t, doesn’t know how to, FIGHT, DAMNIT! Yeah, I despise the left, and I do my best to fight the good fight, but throw me a fucking bone already, Mr. President, and get out there and kick pelosi, reid, schumer, kennedy, et al, in the nuts. SHIT, YOU’RE A LAME DAMN DUCK, WITH RATINGS IN THE SHITER, NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP, SO SHOW SOME COURAGE AND FRAG THEM BASTARDS! That is all.
Meh. Pup tent.
He doesn’t seem to not defend himself. He doesn’t engage at all. Not a whit.
If you want to gladly and tirelessly defend Bush, even when some* of his policies are either indefensible or his reasoning too obtuse, I’ve got a monthly trailpass for the R8 Local for sale. Have at it. I’m rather sick and tired of the whole shebang. At this pint** I’d rather drive to work, damn the carbon footprint-of-it-all.
*”Some”, meaing he’s right on the war and, well I’ll be gobsmacked if I can say he’s right on any other gd thing.
** actually I don’t think Martini’s come in pints, but if they do, count me in.
esteban–
Martinis do come in pints. Which is proof (heh) of a merciful God.
Merciful God, we thank thee.
Merciful God, we praise thee.
Merciful God, make it bone dry, with a twist.
Praise the Prick of Peace*
* I’ve been trying to fit this into a cock-slappin’ haiko for years.
He accomplished tort reform. That was cool. Tax cuts. Helpful, that. He made the most credible effort at reforming entitlements I’ve seen in my lifetime. Nuclear energy is again on the table as a policy option. The EU has far less policy influence on this country than it did in the previous administration. And baby turtles will soon be legal. Let freedom ring.
In terms of self-defense, this president is in a situation that is unprecedented in terms of a hostile and willfully deceptive media, and he is further constrained by James Cameronesque twats like Hagel and Specter, peckerless narcissists eager to bring the full weight and fury of Scottish law to bear against him at the slightest provocation.
Also, for Bush to assume a more aggressive posture would be a disservice to a regrettably already-well-underway campaign. I think he wants to avoid a situation in which candidates are box-canyoned into defining themselves in terms of his presidency.
I think he is wisely taking cues from the Clinton impeachment experience, and letting Democrats define themselves in terms of their own petty vindictiveness. The gamble is whether he can reproduce any of those dynamics when the media is at the fore of the prosecution of his impeachment.
An optimist in our midst.
Tort reform?
“Facist, took away my right to sue”.
Entitlements?
Scmitlements.
EU less influence?
This country has never been so ignorantly leftist as it is today.
Hostile media?
That’s their job.
A regrettably already well underway campaign…
Whose fault is that?
Wisely taking cues from the Clinton impeachment experience?
Somehow, someway, I hoped for a hell of a lot more than that.
Turtles!!!!!!!
Turtles? Badgers!
Don’t know wtf that means, but if it involves Elmore James and a stiff, dry, Gin Martini, I’m all in. ‘Cause we conservs are like that.
… must of done somebody wrong…
Smilers never lose and frowners never win, steve-o.
It doesn’t have to be so dark.
Mommy told me something
a little kid should know.
It’s all about the devil
and I’ve learned to hate him so.
She said he causes trouble
when you let him in the room.
He will never ever leave you
if your heart is filled with gloom.
Damn yor eyes happyfeet!
That’s why I love (mankind) this site.
When things go wrong, go wrong with you, it hurts me too!
Holy shit, get over yourselves. Gonzales needs to go, because he has fucked up. He has alienated enough of his staff to cause them to resign, or contemplate it, and that is crucial. He with his sniveling slime trail needs to be scrubbed off the floors.
Shit like this is the reason I would almost vote for a Fred Thompson. At least he’s not festooned with a bunch of mewling, chip-calling operatives who deliver party loyalty but not good government. It’s like kudzu. The hell with them all.
I know it’s an executive perogative to place USAttorneys; it’s just that this was smarmy beyond belief. It was high school. Reminds me of Election, which was a hella funny movie.
I so miss Pigpen.
BTW, I bet the there are thems that would have a fit if they knew you could get those lyrics off the NIH website.
Cynn – you are really harshin’ my mellow
Well, I’m not getting this round, to say the least.
Go-Gonzales, goodbye!
Go-Gonzales, don’t cry!
Stay on your feet,
Watch what you eat,
If you don’t get a pardon
Your f*cking’s complete!
Go-Gonzales, goodbye!
Go-Gonzeles, you’re
just another onionhead, just another onionhead . . .
Cynn Cynn
Watch the mood you think you’re in
Cynn Cynn
Cause the light is going dim
Cynn Cynn
When you know you think you’re him
Sin Sin
… …
shit I’ve got nothin’
Brian Wilson Has Done Me Wrong, Part the 6th
esteban–
This is cracking me up. It’s like when I used to take my friends from Cielito Lindo to Dubliners, and vice-versa.
I doubt there’s one in ten out there that could even haphazardly articulate what Gonzales has done that merits his resignation, and the majority of those would have the facts wrong.
To let a James Comey, Patrick Fucking Fitzgerald’s numero uno dicklick, a man who very likely was one of the New York Times’ sources for its initial and illegal leak of the NSA programs, railroad a good Texan would be to acquiesce to the ascendance of a priestly class of the petty and the opportunistic. Few good men would be found to serve, and even they would risk little. Washington and Brussels would become synonymous and indistinguishable. Is that what you want? Is it?? IS IT???
estaban: scuttle whence you came.
Why, cynn? Ought he have been a pair of ragged claws?
he can creep in on little cat-feet for all I care. And all I know is your pretty AG is defending his craptacular record rather than closing the borders.
Copied and pasted because this is just funny.
It’s additionally funny because Gonzalez is just sweetie talk with an soft country twang.
Most don’t recall, but the evil Gonzalez – at the start of the stupid farce Plame investigation was SO BY THE BOOK he declined to be told the details from the department of state attorney who basically told the him – the leaker is here.
What is really sad – and I think a result of our pussification of men and unions- is that Comey and McNulty have been engaged in leaking and behind the scenes backstabbing because the administration didn’t not always behold them and their infinite importance.
Actually it’s the stalwart USAs that have more affect on that than the AG. Apparently Gonzales can only respectfully suggest that maybe they might want to think about maybe enforcing immigration-related laws in their districts. Anything else would be POLITICAL INTERFERENCE. The Border Patrol is under the DHS purview.
This Comey and this McNulty, they have no honor. TSk9 has it right.
You guys are pig-addled blind. Make more shit up; it’s biodegradable.
You scoff at honor.
Okay, happyfeet. You asked for it.
Gonzales and Card, in the interest of pushing a program that, at least lacked statutory authorizing authority, attempted to get a signoff stating that it complied with FISA from a legally incapacitated John Ashcroft, who had transferred control of DOJ to Jim Comey.
That way, they’d have an Ashcroft signature on a piece of paper, and even though it would be a legal nullity because Ashcroft was out of his gourd on percocet or some other narcotic when he signed it, Gonzo would have some political cover.
Ted Olson agreed with him that this program was not authorized under the statute, and could not be authorized using those authorities. Jack Goldsmith also agreed with them. Are they all Fitzgerald dick licks, as you so piquantly put it?
I used to figure there was some way that the monitoring program, from what limited bit I know about it from accounts in the public domain, could fit within FISA. Evidently, it can’t, or couldn’t be fitted at the time, and if it was legal (a possibility Comey leaves open), drew its authority from some other source of law – either the AUMF, or the President’s inherent Article II authorities. When Justice refused to sign off on it and Gonzales attempted an end run with the incapacitated Ashcroft, trying to get him to say it was authorized under FISA, it was highly inappropriate and unethical, and Comey is dead-nuts-on to state that this flies in the face of the rule of law. The President is always free to ignore what DOJ says (an ignorance that comes with consequences) but he (and his delegates) are never permitted to fraudulently induce an incorrect opinion from DOJ. Had Gonzales asked Comey for another legal opinion – e.g. whether the program could be viewed as authorized under AUMF or Article II, *that* would have been appropriate. But trying to get a legal opinion out of a guy who was basically unconscious? That is beyond sleazy and shocks even my shriveled lawyer-conscience. If your mommy says no, and your daddy says no, can you run out to the ice cream truck and buy a Rocket Pop based on your insane Aunt Bertha’s say-so? Of course not. Auth Bertha isn’t empowered to give permission, nor was John Ashcroft, zoning in and out of consciousness on his sickbed.
If Gonzales was an attorney working for me and tried this kind of crap – for a real life hypothetical say he tried to get a signature on a settlement agreement from an incapacitated litigant coming out of surgery – I’d shitcan his ass, have security frog march him out of the building, and report him to the bar for a disciplinary investigation to try to find out where his professional ethic disappeared to. That the White House Counsel, who has a higher trust reposed in him than the average attorney, pulled this kind of unethical maneuver, is absolutely galling. I knew he was a political hack when the WH inflicted the half-assed gibberish brief on DOJ during the University of Michigan affirmative action cases. But I didn’t realize he was an utterly unethical sonovabitch too until Comey testified. Sorry, but lawyer jokes notwithstanding, attorney ethics mean something, and they should especially mean something when we are looking at people at the top of the legal profession and at the top of the structures of power in this country.
Honestly, I’m amazed you have the nerve to slander Comey. I guess you think Ted Olson – who Card wouldn’t even let into his office for a meeting on the surveillance program based on Olson’s rep within the WH domestic policy staff for being a troublesome straight arrow (like Comey) – is also some left wing choagy boy who somehow infiltrated the Administration? Please.
Yeah, sure, few good men can be found to serve in high profile government positions, but part of the reason for that may be that many people, like you, can’t tell the difference between good men and mountebanks. If you think Gonzales is one of the good men we need in positions of power, I believe you are sadly mistaken. It’s been clear for a long time that he is a hack; it became clear in the last week that he is unethical as well.
So hey, how does the Kool Aid taste?
What do you mean by that?
Al Maviva, thanks. I felt something was wrong with the system.
This is Comey mixing a mean batch of Kool Aid right there. Card and Gonzales did absolutely nothing wrong by walking past dicklick to talk to Ashcroft. I would ask you why, as acting Attorney General, dicklick was still sycophantly hovering over his boss, the not-AG, at the hospital? If he was that insecure in his position, then you can bet he was there for no other reason than to further his own dicklick agenda. He wasn’t gonna let that pathetic sick codger get in the way of his schemes, not when he was so close, and had licked so much dick.
You are beyond grasping here.
Really. It seems pretty clear from Coney’s ellisions that Card and Gonzales were at the hospital having first called Ashcroft’s chief of staff to get a greenlight for the meeting. We need some testimony from that little man to have a full picture of the evening, no? Not to mention hearing from Mr. and Mrs. Ashcroft.
That’s not people-language right there. That’s dicklick-speak for “Andy Card just called and asked if Ashcroft was up for a brief meeting. I said I’d just come from the hospital and I thought it would be ok.”
Can we start a backlash against Hugh Hewitt now consisting with a massive email “YOU SUCK BIG ONES” campaign against both he and Specter…can anyone point to one none counter-productive measures and legislation Specter has been a part of other than about 2 sound bites in the Alito hearings?
Specter is a disgrace and for why Bush went to bat for this scoundrel I will never know.
Last minute. Comey held it back and sprang it last minute.
The lefties are NOW for high public official have no right to do their job AND striping away the oversight of competence the part of the Administration. The same could be said for Cheney in Plame affair – he questioned the competency of an agency—HIS FLIPPING JOB – does the agency regularly dole out sensitive intelligence gathering to 3rd rate husbands (and then let the hubby lie in papers?) on the margins of Joe Wilson’ op-ed – in essence doing his job.
Specter is a disgrace and for why Bush went to bat for this scoundrel I will never know.
Because they couldn’t trust macaca to keep from losing the senate.
That is beyond sleazy and shocks even my shriveled lawyer-conscience. If your mommy says no, and your daddy says no, can you run out to the ice cream truck and buy a Rocket Pop based on your insane Aunt Bertha’s say-so? Of course not. Auth Bertha isn’t empowered to give permission, nor was John Ashcroft, zoning in and out of consciousness on his sickbed.
So now he was legally incapacitated and zoning in and out of consciousness on his sickbed?
He was very ill. He’d had surgery. It doesn’t need to be made more dramatic than that.
Card and Gonzales obvioulsy didn’t trust that Comey was fairly representing Ashcroft’s opinion. Sure, Comey was acting AG, but everybody knew he was really only the temporary AG. What if Ashcroft came back and denied he and Comey had ever agreed to such a thing?
Your analogy would be better if it were that the babysitter told you you had to throw out your entire case of poprocks that your daddy had bought for you. The babysitter tells you your dad agrees with him. So you call daddy to make sure the babysitter isn’t making shit up. Trust, but verify.
Here’s what Comey actually said – the earlier quote was a re-edit by out lefty friends – so it’s clear that Mrs. Ashcroft had adjudged that John was able to receive visitors. She called Ashcroft’s chief of staff. She did NOT call dicklick. Dicklick…
So dicklick barges into the hospital room uninvited and unannounced. Mrs. Ashcroft, who was not expecting him, must have thought that was pretty damn charming. Dicklick has very poor manners.
AP:
The deadline for renewal was March 11. Comey waited until March 9 to tell the WH that he wouldn’t be renewing. This was the first time renewal was being refused, and also the first time it was someone other than Ashcroft talking to the WH.
They darn well had better talk to Ashcroft, if Ashcroft can talk.
Yet Comey, in fear of losing this battle, rushed to Ashcroft’s bedside not to protect the sick man, but to protect Comey’s own position. He got three more people to come join him at the hospital, so concerned was he that Ashcroft not be disturbed in his sickbed.
In the end, Ashcroft was strong enough- not incapacitated at all- to tell Card and Gonzales that he agreed with Comey’s assessment not to recertify. Card and Gonzales heard it from a trusted source, and things started to change the very next day.
It worked out precisely as it should have.
I am so sickened by the man-girls in our government.
I so super hope my son does not follow in these footsteps and he is man enough to take disagreement for what it is disagreement. If he wins good for him, if he doesn’t? Just do you job the best you know.
As this little mini faux debate goes on, I want to re file charges on Clinton – FOR NOT TAKING Monica’s OPINIONS ON EDUCATION etc. seriously – it was late at night and she was whisked in!
Hillary has fat ankles and cankles because she’s constantly reversing herself to pander to voters. She has to push the old position down deep into her inner hiding place. Pretty soon, with so many twists and turns and switchbacks and crossovers being stuffed into her dark hold, the weak spots will bulge.
Wait till she has to put Murtha away.
I also heard that they went to the hospital in the dark of night.
THE DARK OF NIGHT! Have they no shame?
No shame at all. And poor Mrs. Ashcroft, mute and helpless as Comey’s relentless and unwarranted violation of the hospital room continued on and on until the shameless bastards finally left her in some semblance of peace. But tell me, as John lay weak in his hospital bed, exhausted from the melodrama Comey had wrought upon him, who held Mrs. Ashcroft as she cried? No one, that’s who. Mrs. Ashcroft stood alone. And what had begun as a dark night, had grown immeasurably darker. Comey’s legacy.
I’m sorry, Al Maviva, but you’re not the right type of lawyer to give an opinion on government ethics. You’re probably not board certified in any kind of ethics law. It’s kind of like not being the right type of scientist to give an opinion on the new global warming religion. It’s all so complicated. We need a real expert to tell us what to think.
I asked someone in a hospital a question once. Am I expert enough for you, Al Maviva?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a look of misery and dejection on the face of my husband as I just did a moment ago. He just couldn’t understand why the President would be trying to wiretap terror suspects when so many things are wrong in this country. “Doesn’t Mr. Bush care about us anymore?†he asked pitifully.
I sat down with him on the hospital bed and (as calmly as I could) tried to explain to him why the President seems to be abandoning his country. “Honey, I think his boss, Mr. Rove, sent Mr. Bush out of the country in order to keep himself out of the newspapers. You see, he wasn’t sure if he was going to be arrested today or not, and so he planned Mr. Bush’s trip ahead of time just in case… That’s why Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card came in his place.â€Â
I tried to keep my voice steady, but it became increasingly difficult – the rage and feelings of helplessness were just too much. I think my husband could tell something was wrong. I found myself at such a loss for words – nothing made any sense; nothing makes sense anymore. I finally had to admit, “Honey, I just don’t know – I don’t know what’s going on in this country anymore…â€Â
When I finished his lower lip started to tremble and his eyes began to fill with tears, “Janet†he said, “why are the Republicans doing this to the country?†Well, that was it for me: I finally fell apart. He just fell into my arms and we both began sobbing for several minutes.
For once he had to comfort me and get me back on my feet. Sometimes I just think it’s too much, but seeing the strength in my sick, doped up husband’s voice helped me to get through.
Wrong election year. But hey, it’s all Gen. Grant’s fault for not letting Patton take his devil dogs in against Montezuma, right?
But hey, it’s all Gen. Grant’s fault for not letting Patton take his devil dogs in against Montezuma, right?
I pin the blame on heroes that routed the bonus army, actually.
Macaca? Isn’t that a racial slur?
For shame.
Viva Janet!
The Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact.
Happyfeet, tell me, are Olson, Goldsmith, and Ashcroft a bunch of Fitzgerald and Schumer dicklicks too? They didn’t agree with Gonzales, either, and all exited more or less together after this incident, even though the President agreed with them on the law. Guess you better hop on the leftist bandwagon railing about those dirty Federalist Society lawyers as a bunch of partisan hacks, or maybe as a hate group.
Man, conservative attorneys spend 20+ years trying to fight the left wing bastards people who want to turn the law into a political whorehouse, we finally start making some headway in the argument with legal liberals, and then you partisan (theoretically conservative) Kool Aiders come along with a Visa and a hardon and ask for three redheads…
As for you, KLFRs, there’s no board certification for ethics, though you do seem somewhat certifiable on this point. When a federal department head goes down for surgery or with a serious illness, legal authorities to direct the department are executed passing control of the department to an acting chief, usually a deputy secretary, or in DOJ’s case, to the Deputy Attorney General. That is what occurred in this case, and why Gonzales and Card’s actions, assuming they resemble what Comey testified to, are crooked. Breaking the law? Probably not. More crooked than a dog’s hind leg? Yep.
No. I was very clear that Comey is the dicklick. He is a big hot-flashy woman.
Read his testimony. I’m sure you have.
Given the facts Comey as breathlessly relates them, explain how anything would have been any different if he had stayed home that night and played strap-on games with the other Mrs. Comey.
Mrs. Ashcroft was informed that Card and Gonzales were coming. She obviously felt John was up for it. Shockingly, when Card and Gonzales arrived, Ashcroft more than demonstrated that he was indeed up for it. Dicklick trembled before the majesty of his up-for-it-ness.
Dicklick returned to the DOJ and fanned himself for a bit. But he could not go to the White House alone, he needed to have real men go with him so they could hold his hand. Then he was like so going to quit cause everyone was so mean. He kinda remembers lots of people were going to quit, but for sure his own chief of staff. Maybe others, he totally kinda remembers that.
George Bush knew what to do. He made Dicklick feel safe. Dicklick went home, and, grateful to the other Mrs. Comey for tivoing Desperate Housewives, he made himself a big bowl of ice cream with chockit sprinkles and thought “I’m so the AG. Me!”
As I recall, powerline ponited out at Comet admitted that there was nothing wrong in Gonzales’ actions. Kinda spoils the holier than thou act for you, doesn’t it, Al?
And what happened with the program shortly thereafter?
The president agreed with Comey and Mueller to conform the program to the law, over Gonzales’ and Card’s strenuous objections. So you’re arguing that Comey is a dicklick for attempting to get the President to conform a technical surveillance program to the law of the land, and that Acting AG Comey, Olson, Goldsmith, and Ashcroft are POS’s for standing up against Card & Gonzales when they tried to proceed in an illegal manner.
Okay, cool, just as long as we’re clear on that. No blood, no foul, I guess, all they did was urge illegality, the President (that pussy) decided to disregard their advice and go with those dicklicks from DOJ. Hah, what do they know about the law compared to a genius like Judge Gonzales?
Golly, I don’t know when I got so prissy. I guess we just need to break a few laws, so we can break a few eggs, to make an omelet of liberty…
Al – the truth is we don’t know what it was that kept Comey from recommending certification – but whatever it was has not been definitively adjudicated to warrant pronouncing it “illegal.” Dicklick waited until the last moment to tear the head off his Barbie and throw it at Bush – so they had basically one day to get the head back on and have Barbie ready for her date with Ken. Whatever it was that was flustrating Dicklick was quickly resolved.
Again, the record does NOT show that Comey had familiarized Card and Gonzales with the particulars of his concerns about the surveillance programs, and they, in deference to the “law” as defined by executive order, took very seriously the need to maintain the surveillance programs pursuant to DoJ certification, and with the deadline so close, moved quickly to get a handle on the situation. Clearly, Comey had not won their trust and confidence, this is because dicklicks have trouble inspiring trust and confidence.
And there’s no need to impugn anybody’s character Al. When one is accustomed to dealing with grownups about serious matters, it takes time and patience to switch gears to adroitly handle a raving dicklick, but Card, Gonzales and the President pulled through when it mattered, and the nation is better for it.