When resignation isn’t enough
That Alberto Gonzales is still the Attorney General of the United States, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence of his gross misconduct and repeated perjury, is, in itself, of course, an indictment of the health of our political process.
But this isn’t about resignation anymore. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the real issue — or at least what should be the real issue — isn’t how many more days, months and years Gonzales will disgrace the Department of Justice until his inevitable resignation comes. No, the real question is how many days, months and, yes, years he should spend in prison thereafter.
Take the time to do two things, if you haven’t already: First, read Glenn Greenwald’s summary of the recent explosion of events in the old NSA scandal; second, watch a clip of former Deputy Attorney General James Comey’s testimony.
Greenwald’s summary provides the indispensable background for what’s going on — or at least as much of what’s going on as can be divined through the haze of secrecy and deceit.
As for Comey’s testimony, I tell you what it reminds me of — the movie Seven Days in May.
We always knew that Bush thought the Sept. 11 attacks gave him a blank check to ignore the constitution. We may finally be on the verge of finding out just how far, based upon that fallacy of logic and character, his gang of thugs took us down the path of lawlessness and constitutional disgrace.
And when that story is finally told, and told in full, it will not be enough for the malefactors to slink away. There must be consequences that are at least somewhat commensurate to the crimes.
May 17th, 2007 at 6:47 am
I agree. Can we really count on a GOP-packed judiciary to actually mete out any semblence of commensurate punishment though? And even if that happens, will he be pardoned anyway?
May 17th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I wish there was such a thing as posthumous impeachment & indictment. I would put Nixon & Reagon on the stand, probably Ford for giving Nixon a pardon, certainly G. H. W. Bush, maybe Clinton for that stupid Kosovo too. Then maybe we wouldn’t have had to put up with “Bush The Failure.” (The guy has failed at everything he’s attempted.)
But then again, I suppose we will all be com-post humus in time.
Sorry, being glib again.