| So. The Senate Republicans blocked a "no confidence" vote in Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. It received only 53 votes, not enough to end a Republican filibuster.
The "no confidence" vote is, of course, a non-binding resolution. Senate Democrats were hoping that such a passed vote would pressure to the Attorney General to finally resign, instead of launching a risky and time-consuming impeachment process.
Republicans, however, spun spun spun their vote of "confidence" in Gonzalez, crying "politics" while obviously supporting "their" man in the name of politics. (Their support certainly can't be based on competency. Or honesty. Or integrity.) |
It'll be a 'gotcha' 30-second commercial," Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, predicted for those Republicans who voted to block cloture.
Citing his deep-seated opposition to Gonzales, Specter supported the resolution while at the same time encouraging fellow Republicans to oppose it because of "outright political chicanery."
Here's the roll call for the vote. Those Republicans that did vote for cloture - or an end to the filibuster - include a who's who list of the most vulnerable 2008 Senate seats, including Sens. Sununu (NH), Snowe (ME), Smith (OR), and Coleman (MN). Which only underscores that Senators are aware that supporting Gonzo don't fly with the voters.
Not sure why the Republican Congress wants to tether itself to the most unpopular President since Nixon, but there you have it. Thanks for the Senate seats!
By the way, in case you're wondering, Both Jon Tester and Max Baucus voted for cloture.
(Oh, and Joe Lieberman voted against cloture. Classy, Joe, classy. Maybe he is angling for the Secretary of Defense job, after all. Only he's more valuable to the administration in his current role.)
But things are only getting worse for Gonzalez lately. First, new Justice department documents reveal that the White House was actively involved in hiring and firing of federal attorneys, a clear display of the brazen politicizing that's undermined national confidence in our federal prosecutors.
And one of the attorneys who kept his job - Bradley Schlozman, former deputy head of the Civil Rights Division at the DoJ - is getting into hot water over "misstatements" made about bogus voter fraud indictments he brought to court just before the election.
Also, resigned Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty - who got the Scooter Libby treatment from Gonzo and Goodling - is testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee next week. And seeing how the White House pins their sins on hapless and loyal underlings, he just may want to talk.
That is, more and more evidence is going to accumulate against Alberto Gonzalez, and the Republicans (and independent) supporting him are going to look more and more foolish. So...what about the "i" word?
Kossak Kagro X weighs the options:
...Today's vote, even for some Republicans squeamish about Gonzales' continued tenure in office, was a freebie. That is, there were any number of at least halfway decent excuses not to vote for it, mostly derived from one of the following:
--There really isn't any such thing as a vote of no-confidence in our system;
--The resolution would be non-binding, and therefore in all likelihood (and in the face of this stubborn jackass of a president) would mean nothing;
--The "evidence," despite the numerous hearings, hasn't really been "publicly examined", etc.
Senators voting as the jury in an impeachment trial, however, would find most of these excuses stripped away (not that they wouldn't invent others). There very definitely is such a thing as impeaching an Attorney General, removal from office upon conviction is automatic, and the evidence against him will have been combed over, piece by piece, in a very public trial on the floor of the United States Senate, and beamed across the country on C-SPAN2.
Still, impeachment proceedings would be a bold move. However, given Congress' recent record on an issue that, if anything, was more popular with voters than ousting Gonzo - withdrawal from Iraq - color me doubtful. |
