Gonzales Before the Senate: First Impressions

The Senate grilling is over, but Leahy says they aren't through with this issue yet.

Too much of Gonzales saying, "I don't recall", "It wasn't my job", and not ever being able to answer specifically why those eight US Attorneys were fired...The closest he got to explaining the latter regarded Carol Lam, and Feinstein eviscerated him on the weak points he tried to raise. Not much on the other USAs, or why Wisconsin's USA was removed from the list of those to be dismissed. One of the more damning parts of the testimony concerned exactly how and who decided what USAs were to be placed on that list...

The strongest and most suprising condemnation of Gonzales came from Republican John Cornyn, who stated that Gonzales needed to resign. The other Republicans on the committee lobbed mostly softballs at Gonzales, with most using their sessions to discuss unrelated issues like campus security and internet gambling.

After today, Gonzales is a laughingstock; however I hope that he doesn't step down or stops pleasuring the president...for two reasons:

- Cripes, he makes this administration look bad. I mean bad.
- I don't want his exit from the DoJ to act as a firewall between the White House and this particlar issue...There were (too few) questions about the roles Harriet Miers and Karl Rove played in this issue, along with the larger issue of this administration's politicization of government institutions...

Update: Changed my mind. Gonzales should go. Now. There's plenty of investigating to do to find out how deep that rabbit hole is; the AG won't ever give up anything useful, as evidenced today.