Justice for Gonzales?

A while ago, we took a look at a developing situation in the Justice Department. Federal attorneys around the country were being fired and replaced by political cronies. Boy, did that start to explode last week. Karl Rove has been implicated, and both New York Senator Charles Schumer and The New York Times each called for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. And just now, in going over to the Times for that link, I see they're reporting in Tuesday's paper that the Prez himself was getting into the action. As Paul Kiel wrote yesterday at TPM Muckraker yesterday, "It's easy to get lost among the scandals and subscandals that make up the administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys." There are a lot of ins and outs, and one day when I have the time to construct a flow chart, I might understand it all. Here's a little background if, like me, you're finding it a bit hard to follow.

A couple of weeks back, New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici and Representative Heather Wilson were implicated in pressuring David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in that state, to issue indictments against political opponents. At the end of last year, Iglesias resigned his position--he claims he was pushed out. That seems to have refocused attention on the recent dismissal of the rest of those U.S. attorneys no longer in office. When the judiciary committees of both the House and Senate heard testimony from six of the released U.S. attorney on Tuesday, everybody was paying attention. On Thursday, senators met with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and reports were that it didn't go so well. The Justice Department has been insisting that the whole thing is a personnel matter and that no one else needs to be involved, but Gonzales was quick to back down on that on Thursday. He's also backing down on his earlier position that the language Arlen Specter snuck into the renewed Patriot Act allowing the attorney general to replace U.S. attorneys without Senate hearings should be rescinded. Yes, Alberto's very agreeable these days. Arlen Specter, on the other hand, was his typical wishy-washy self. Before the Thursday hearings, Specter said, "One day there will be a new attorney general, maybe sooner rather than later." Later in the day, however, he spun the quote and claimed that he wasn't suggesting Gonzales be fired. Whatever you say, Arlen.

This is moving faster than it looked like it would at the start. How long can Gonzales last? If the Prez is even leaning on him to make political appointments, I don't guess it can go much higher. And that's not even getting into the FBI Patriot Act abuses.