Something Rotten

There are so many gates opening under this administration I am wondering how they are managing to stay afloat. We have Tillmangate (yes, it always is the cover-up that gets you), and we have Iraqigate (a.k.a. how you say Viet Nam in Arabic), then there is Katrinagate (also known as Heck-of-a-job-Brownie gate), no one could forget Shootergate, and on they go.

Now we have Gonzogate. As all the others go, this one is probably the least offensive inasmuch as no one died or was maimed. But the deceptive and underhanded behavior is still inexcusable and just plain wrong. I have no real beef with Alberto other than I think he is way out of his depth, and while he was doing his job when he got the Shrub out of jury duty (have to protect the client dontcha know) so the DUI would not be revealed, I cannot say I like that he did it. Of course the fact that people have been getting Dubya out of trouble his whole life is the reason we have him where he is today. If his real record including his AWOL, the DUI, his behavior as a frat boy at Yale, among other things, were documented public knowledge we might have been spared the thousands dead in Iraq, the destruction of our reputation around the world, the economic status we now “enjoy” of being a wholly owned subsidiary of other countries like China, and those are only the highlights!

The brief summary of Gonzogate as I understand it is Karl The Architect Rove identified eleven states that could be a problem to the Republicans maintaining (regaining) power in 2008. It is critical therefore that the judicial process in those states be maintained by Bushies – i.e. those friendly to the administration and their cronies. An analysis was done of which U.S. Attorneys were and were not company pawns as determined by the Rove yardstick, and those that were deemed to be most independent (Imagine! An independent minded judiciary!) and less willing to do the bidding of the big boys were removed. These turned out to be eight U.S. Attorneys who also happened to be, conveniently, in eight of the eleven states identified by the Turd Blossom (Bush’s nickname for Rove).

Before I go on, I know there has been a lot of rhetoric by the right wing-nuts that Clinton fired all of his … and that is true. But so did many other presidents fire or request the resignation of all or most political appointees including U.S. Attorneys at the beginning of their first term… Reagan, and Bush 41 are just two examples of that… in fact Harriet She Coulda Been A Contenda Miers advocated just that to Shrub after the 2004 election. Truth is multi-term presidents don’t usually remove appointees en masse since they are their own appointees.

One dismissed attorney was fired for the reason that he was in Arkansas and one of Rove’s proteges wanted to start his political career there and needed the position. While it sucks, I cannot argue with that, it is a feature of the system. But to trash the person being replaced by saying his performance was subpar is unforgivable.

Another replaced (displaced?) attorney was in a state where he was looking into Democratic election fraud, but did not find enough evidence to issue an indictment, certainly not before the upcoming elections which he was being pressured to do – and yup, he’s outta there! Still another attorney had indicted and put away a Republican Congressman for corruption, and was investigating others. The excuse for her was that she wasn’t investigating immigration cases yet her office had something like 50% of their caseload in that arena. And lest we forget the attorney in a state that had a contested Governor’s race in 2004 who could not find sufficient voter fraud to overturn the will of the people allowing the elected Democrat to take office.

Bottom line on these attorneys is they did not pursue Democrats sufficiently (the way perhaps the Republicans went after Clinton?) to please their handlers.

What makes this almost amusing is that people who are slated to testify are all starting to announce in advance they plan to plead the 5^th! What are we dealing with here, Mafia Dons? Actually, maybe that shouldn’t be a question . . . Where there is smoke there is fire, and with this many unwilling to go under oath and tell what went on the apparent guilt is fairly dripping off the White House and DOJ. I’m waiting for the Congressional Committee to offer some immunity so maybe more than just hints of this sludge can hit the fan!