Bye Bye Gonzales: Now They Can Get Someone to Take Control of Justice Department

Washington is breathing a sigh of relief as Alberto Gonzales tendered his resignation today as Attorney General. At the same time, everyone is holding their breath waiting for President Bush to name the next target on the shooting range. The confirmation process is likely to be a brutal affair.

I didn't like Gonzales any more than I liked Reno or Ashcroft. That's three Attorney Generals in a row who did more damage to the rule of law regarding the Department of Justice than any three prior to them.

All three used their power to shield their respective Presidents from needed probes to determine if they broke the law.

The DOJ needs to get a handle on the Patriot Act as the FBI has been abusing the living daylights out of it since it's inception. Gonzales gave the impression that he didn't know what was happening in his department. That's why I didn't like him.

Good bye, Gonzales. I hope the President does a much better job in selecting someone who isn't one of his friends for the Attorney General position. The DOJ is not the President's personal shield against investigations of wrongdoing. But the last two Presidents have treated it like that, and that needs to end. And the sooner the better.

Executive Privilege vs. Congressional Subpoenas: Separation of Powers Weakens Every Time Congress and President Clash Over This

Watching the President and Congress clash over subpoenas and Executive Privilege is like watching a chess match. Move. Counter move. Counter-counter move. Check. Counter move.

The firings of eight U.S. attorneys set off this high-stakes game of chess. It goes thus:

Attorney General Gonzales fires eight federal attorneys; no reason is given. Congress demands explanations; Justice declines; Congress subpoenas documents and people; White House asserts Executive Privilege; Congress threatens contempt of Congress charges against anyone refusing to testify; White House says "so?"; Congress again threatens contempt charges; White House orders federal prosecutors not to comply with Congressional contempt citations; Congress threatens to charge Gonzales with perjury.

There seems to be a great deal of confusion as to where Congressional authority ends and Presidential authority begins--and vice versa.

And we have a sitting Congress and President who don't mind intruding on one another's territory, which makes this question even more difficult to resolve. And they've both tried to shred parts of the Constitution that deals with the other.

This is not the first time that a President and Congress have clashed over Executive Privilege; Nixon asserted ExecPriv over his Watergate recordings; the Supreme Court ruled against him. A lower Federal court also ruled against Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal when his aides were ordered to testify before the Starr commission.

Presidents need to pick and choose which battles need to be fought to preserve the separation of powers, not to cover their behinds. And Congress needs to pick and choose which fights really need to be fought and make sure that they're not crossing the line between Congressional powers and Presidential ones.

We are not a parliamentary democracy. The President is NOT a member of Congress as the British Prime Minister is of the British Parliament (as are most of his/her ministers). We are a federal republic with three branches of government, complete with a system of checks and balances to prevent one branch from gaining supremacy over all others.

President Bush and Congress are trying to gain supremacy over the other, and the third branch may be required to step in to put a stop to it. It's only a matter of time now before this is referred to the courts. They've locked us into this course.

What a sorry state of affairs.

Immigration Bill's Failure Proves We Have a Lame-Duck President AND Congress: This is a Caretaker Government Until the Next Election

It's become clear that we have a caretaker government filled with placeholders who are awaiting the next election.

Both parties are badly splintered; both are split on the Iraq War and immigration. An up-or-down vote of no-confidence on Alberto Gonzales' leadership of the Justice Department died on the Senate floor. Congress members have been reduced to threatening to kill one another's pork projects in appropriations bills.

I think I would prefer it if this Congress and President stuck to naming federal buildings, handing out medals, and the like. They are clearly out to do their own business and not the business of the American people.

Immigration reform? Not with this crowd. No way. They all but gave away our southern border with their last attempt at immigration reform.

Resolving the Iraq War? Forget it. Hopefully the generals or Iraq's government tell President Bush that it's time for American forces to leave, and he listens to them, regardless of what this Congress is doing.

Gonzales? Nope.

Dealing with Iran? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

President Bush is fighting both Democrats and Republicans and achieved a stalemate with the Democrats...and with his own party.

And the Democrats are blowing it BIG time. Their control of Congress is a joke; and news came this week that their approval rating has dropped to 29%, which is lower than President Bush's 33% approval rating. One commenter has observed that Congressional approval ratings have returned to 2006 pre-election levels.

This is really the party that swept back into power last November?

Hooplah Over Federal Attorney Firings is Nonsense: EVERY President Has Dismissed Prosecutors so Why is This Time Any Different?

A political "firestorm" has erupted over the firings of eight federal prosecutors by the Bush Administration.

It's all over nothing.

The reason that the Democrats are making a stink out of this is that they've (finally) discovered that there is no unity in their own party over what to do about Iraq. This new issue has brought about a sense of unity of purpose in the Democratic ranks. (It won't last---there's too many divisions, interests and overriding issues at play).

And the Republicans seem to think that the situation was mishandled. Yet they didn't say anything when President Clinton fired all the attorneys to in his first term; nor did they say anything when George W. Bush fired all of Clinton's people at the start of his first term.

Those federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the President. He chose to fire eight of them. End of story.

And Alberto Gonzales is out to save his job. His credibility was stretched beyond belief long before this food fight started. He's been ordered to "patch things up" with Congress, but I don't think he can do it.

The bigger issue is the rampant FBI abuse of the Patriot Act. This other idiocy can wait.