Alberto Gonzales just keeps digging himself a deeper and deeper hole and Wolfowitz is sent packing.
Justin's Thursday Political News 05.17.07
Posted by Justin Baragona on 05.17.2007
411mania.com
Welcome to another edition of Justin's Thursday Political News. There has been quite a bit in the news the past few days. The Republicans had another Presidential debate on Tuesday. You can read more about it here. In his recap, Jason accurately described how Giuliani looked like a tool when he confronted Ron Paul about his Middle East comments and how our foreign policy there has led to us being hated. Of course, Rudy had to mention 9/11 and how he was in New York at the time and he even wanted Paul to withdraw his comments. I agree with Jason that Giuliani is looking more and more foolish in these debates and if he doesn't stop the shameless shilling of 9/11, McCain (or someone else) is going to overtake him in the polls. Let's go right to the news.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did what he does best, which is throw someone under the bus and place blame anywhere else but on himself. While taking questions at a forum for the Justice Department, Gonzales seemed to place the blame squarely on the Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty's shoulders in regards to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys for what appears to be political reasons. "The recommendations reflected the views of the deputy attorney general. He signed off on the names," Gonzales said. Gonzales continued to distance himself from the firings when he made this statement: "The deputy attorney general would know best about the qualifications and the experiences of the United States attorneys' community, and he signed off on the names." Afterwards, the Attorney General said that he should have been more hands-on with the firings and that he will take full responsibility for what occurred. However, members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, were having none of this and felt that Gonzales was just trying to shift the blame, yet again, on someone else and that he is doing more harm than good by not resigning from his position. Ironically, the person who Gonzales was assigning the blame to this time, McNulty, offered up his resignation on Monday.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who has been very critical of Gonzales during this whole affair, responded with some harsh criticism after he heard of the comment Gonzales made on Tuesday. "I heard today that Attorney General Gonzales was trying to assign blame to Paul McNulty for the firings of U.S. attorneys, saying he relied on McNulty's advice," said Schumer. "That's ironic because Paul McNulty came clean with this committee and gave us some valuable information while the attorney general stonewalled." Schumer's comments are regarding the testimony that McNulty provided to Congress where he stated that he was not involved in the decision making process of the attorney firings, but merely approved the list once it was given to him. Schumer was not the only one critical of Gonzales. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, stated that another resignation from Gonzales' office will not stop the Democrats fro investigating further. "Another resignation won't make the unanswered questions about the fired U.S. attorneys disappear," said Emanuel. "For months, Democrats have been seeking straight answers about the prosecutor purge," Emanuel said. "Democrats will continue our aggressive investigation into this serious matter. Resignations are no substitute for the truth."
To pile on some more, Gonzales made a visit to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft while he was in the hospital with pancreatitis and pressuring him to approve the White House's warrantless wiretapping program, as stated in testimony on Tuesday by James Comey, who was Ashcroft's deputy. Comey stated that Ashcroft did not follow through with the request, thus causing the Bush Administration to go forward with the program without approval from the Justice Department. This has raised the ire of Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and he is now calling for Gonzales to resign immediately. Hagel feels that we cannot have an Attorney General who tried to undermine the office he now holds, and that he has completely lost the trust of the American people. "The American people deserve an attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of our country, whose honesty and capability are beyond question," Hagel said. "Attorney General Gonzales can no longer meet this standard. He has failed this country. He has lost the moral authority to lead." Hagel then said that "Alberto Gonzales should resign now." The White House was again forced to show support in Gonzales. "Jim Comey gave his side of what transpired. The president still has full confidence in Alberto Gonzales," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. When Snow heard what Hagel had said, he had this reply: "We disagree, and the president supports the attorney general."
As I stated before, the testimony of Comey is what has Hagel (and others) really upset. In the story that Comey recounted, in March 2004, the White House was trying to get the NSA wiretapping program reauthorized by the Attorney General. However, Ashcroft refused to sign off on it at the time because he had concerns that the NSA did not have proper oversight and was also worried about whether the President even had the constitutional authority to have such a program in place. While Ashcroft was pondering his decision to authorize the program, he suddenly needed to go to the hospital and gave the power of his office to Comey until he was well enough to return. The White House then tried to get Comey to certify the program, but he refused. Thus, Gonzales, who was White House Counsel at the time, went to visit Ashcroft in the hospital along with Any Card, the then White House Chief of Staff. They were there to try to get Ashcroft to authorize the NSA program. However, Comey stated that he got to the hospital moments before Gonzales and Card arrived. When they did arrive, they tried to get Ashcroft to sign the certification that came from the President's desk. Ashcroft, being in the intensive care unit, told them the decision was Comey's as he had the powers of office at the moment. At that point, according to Comey, the two walked out of the room and did not speak to Comey.
Later, Card requested that Comey come to his office, at which point Comey said that he wanted a witness to accompany him after the conduct he had just seen in Ashcroft's room. Comey said that Card replied: "What conduct? We were just there to wish him well." Per Comey, he prepared his resignation, along with Ashcroft, when the White House certified the program anyway without the approval of the Justice Department. Afterwards, Bush made changes to the program that was sufficient for the Justice Department and Ashcroft signed off on it, as the President did not want to see mass resignations coming from the Attorney General's office. Hagel is not the only Republican that is asking for Gonzales to resign. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has already been vocal the past few weeks in his wish for Gonzales to leave his post. Sens. John Sununu (R-NH) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have also spoken out about wanting the Attorney General to quit. Rep. Arlen Specter (R-PA) has done everything but call for his resignation, pretty much calling him an embarrassment and a distraction. I cannot possibly imagine that Gonzales is long for his job being that if there is one thing that Republicans and Democrats can agree on, it is that he needs to get the fuck out. Eventually, the President is going to have to cave and ask his good friend Alberto to step down.
Well, it looks like World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is going to step down from his position over ethics questions. I've commented on this situation a couple of times in the past month, so I will spare you much of the back story. Basically, he made sure to get his girlfriend more money when he came on board as president of the bank. Anyway, under the agreement Wolfowitz will voluntarily leave his job and will admit, at least partially, that he was responsible for giving his girlfriend the large pay increase and that it was ethically wrong. It looks like the main reason that Wolfowitz ia agreeing to this resignation is that support from the White House has substantially dropped, as the Administration has come to the realization that he was going to have to go due to the lack of support he was receiving at the bank. It appears that the only support he has continued to receive from the White House is from his old pal Vice President Dick Cheney. Wolfowitz did try on Tuesday to save his job when he appeared before the bank's Executive Board. He provided documents that he said proved he acted in good faith in arranging the promotion for Shaha Riza. However, it was to no avail. Maybe he can come back to the Defense Department and help draw up another war plan like he did for Iraq. As we have seen the past four years, it has worked marvelously.
Before I sign off this week, I wanted to go ahead and acknowledge an important date for my family. On May 19th, 2003, we were informed that my uncle, Lt. Col. Dominic 'Rocky' Baragona, was killed while preparing to return home from Iraq. He was the commanding officer of the 19th Maintenance Battalion from Fort Sill, OK. I remember I wrote about this in a column last year at this time and lamented the fact that the war had been going on for 3 years. In fact this is part of what I wrote: "While I never believed in the reasons for this war, my uncle believed with every ounce of his being in the cause and felt that we needed to be over there. It is for that reason that I always hold out hope that something will come out of the quagmire over there, some sort of accomplishment, just so I don't have that sinking feeling that my uncle died in vain. Yet, with every passing day, week, month, and year, it seems more and more obvious to me that this is, sadly, entirely the case. Remember, war has true casualties, and it isn't just 'collateral damage' or merely the 'price of freedom.' Maybe we will all remember that the next time our government tries to steer us into another war." Now a year later, and the war past the 4 year mark, whatever optimism I had for some kind of accomplishment to come from this war has pretty much vanished. However, despite the lack of confidence I have with this Administration and my thoughts on the war, I do know that I will never think that my uncle died in vain over there. That is really all I have to say about this matter.
That will do it for me this week. One column that you should definitely read is Ray's. The only objection I have to his column this week is that he pretty much made me have to ditch my original column as I was about to write about Falwell, but then read his column and decided that he had already done a fantastic job discussing him, so know need for me to continue with it. I'll be back next Thursday with more news in the realm of politics. |
