Hanging In There

I'd intended to catch up today on the Gonzales hearing from Thursday, but alas, it was not to be. I haven't had a chance to take a look at the transcript provided by The Washington Post or Christy Hardin Smith's play-by-play at Firedoglake (in eight parts, no less: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), so I'm still relying on overviews for my information. I still feel like I've got a pretty good gist of the testimony, though. Dahlia Lithwick had a pretty good description at Slate:

Those of us who arrived today thinking that Gonzales had some sort of brilliant master plan for winning over the judiciary committee are puzzled by the AG's strategy. You can't help but wonder what condition he was in last month before he started preparing full time. His face, for a sustained period of almost seven hours, is a perfect mask of bemused puzzlement and earnest seriousness. Clearly, the one thing he has practiced for two weeks is the face. But the rest of his tactics are dubious.

It looked pretty bad for Gonzales, but he kept pointing out that he served at the pleasure of the President, and the President seems plenty pleased for now. Although he may not be the only one. During NPR's coverage of the hearings, legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg had to fill some time when she was on the air by herself and the hearings were delayed starting for a few minutes after the lunch break. She reported that she'd heard part of Alberto's staying power is due to his wife, who insists that he not leave the national stage while his reputation is under attack. I haven't seen anyone else make similar comments, but somehow they have a ring of truth to me.

But Mrs. Gonzales apparently isn't the only person who thinks Alberto should stay on in the job. Senator John Cornyn argues that Gonzales should hang around because Democrats won't stop investigating just because Gonzales is out of the way. Although I don't agree with his conclusion, I think his logic is essentially correct. As long as Alberto remains in place, he's drawing fire away from the Prez and Karl Rove. Gonzales couldn't offer a valid justification for firing the eight federal prosecutors, which just adds fuel to the fire of the growing speculation that the decision to fire some or all of the attorneys came from the White House. No one on the Judiciary Committee seemed to be going after that question, at least in so many words. During the time she was treading water on the air waiting for the afternoon session to begin, Totenberg virtually begged for some senator to raise the issue. As long as Alberto's providing such an effective firewall, why shouldn't he enjoy the full confidence of the President?