Alberto Developing

Boy, I couldn't have cut it much closer in posting about Alberto and his adventures before it became big, big news, could I? The attorney general held a press conference to say that he takes full responsibility for what happened in the Justice Department, but how can he, when it's so really, really big and he doesn't know what everybody's thinking? How is he supposed to know that there's skullduggery afoot? But don't worry, he reassures us, he's not going to resign. Good, that just means the cries for his resignation get louder and louder. John Edwards was the first presidential candidate calling for him to go, and he's since been joined by Hillary.

In shades of Scooter/Cheney, Gonzales's chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, resigned today, but Chuck Schumer declared that he's not an acceptable fall guy. In a press conference with Diane Feinstein, Schumer outlined six falsehoods the attorney general and the Justice Department have been peddling:

Here are some of the falsehoods we've been told that are now unraveling.

First, we were told that the seven of the eight U.S. attorneys were fired for performance reasons.

It now turns out this was a falsehood, as the glowing performance evaluations attest.

Second, we were told by the attorney general that he would, quote, "never, ever make a change for political reasons."

It now turns out that this was a falsehood, as all the evidence makes clear that this purge was based purely on politics, to punish prosecutors who were perceived to be too light on Democrats or too tough on Republicans.

Third, we were told by the attorney general that this was just an overblown personnel matter.

It now turns out that far from being a low-level personnel matter, this was a longstanding plan to exact political vendettas or to make political pay-offs.

Fourth, we were told that the White House was not really involved in the plan to fire U.S. attorneys. This, too, turns out to be false.

Harriet Miers was one of the masterminds of this plan, as demonstrated by numerous e-mails made public today. She communicated extensively with Kyle Sampson about the firings of the U.S. attorneys. In fact, she originally wanted to fire and replace the top prosecutors in all 93 districts across the country.

Fifth, we were told that Karl Rove had no involvement in getting his protege appointed U.S. attorney in Arkansas.

In fact, here is a letter from the Department of Justice. Quote: "The department is not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Mr. Griffin."

It now turns out that this was a falsehood, as demonstrated by Mr. Sampson's own e-mail. Quote: "Getting him, Griffin, appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, et cetera.

Sixth, we were told to change the Patriot Act was an innocent attempt to fix a legal loophole, not a cynical strategy to bypass the Senate's role in serving as a check and balance.

It was Senator Feinstein who discovered that issue. She'll talk more about it.

So there has been misleading statement after misleading statement -- deliberate misleading statements. And we haven't gotten to the bottom of this yet, but believe me, we will pursue it.

It should be noted that some of these falsehoods were repeated under oath to Congress. As John Aravosis pointed out after watching Alberto's press conference, "The man isn't just trying to keep his job, he's trying to avoid going to jail." It's a bit more difficult getting away with lying to Congress when the opposition is in the majority. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has already expressed his dismay that "the Attorney General was less than forthcoming with the Senate while under oath before the Judiciary Committee."

This appears to be only beginning. Your best one-stop shop for new developments is TPMMuckraker, which had fifteen new posts on the topic today alone. If you're more hardcore than that, you're filing your own reports on the subject.