Gonzales Likely Goes; Chertoff is Not a Fool
By Mona
Republican officials operating at the behest of the White House have begun seeking a possible successor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose support among GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill has collapsed, according to party sources familiar with the discussions.Among the names floated Monday by administration officials [as replacement are] Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff…it is now a virtual certainty that Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, whose incomplete and inaccurate congressional testimony about the prosecutors helped precipitate the crisis, will also resign shortly. Officials were debating whether Gonzales and McNulty should depart at the same time or whether McNulty should go a day or two after Gonzales.
I never understood why a finely trained legal mind such as Chertoff’s would be applied to organizing a new bureaucracy such as Homeland Security; why take him off the appellate bench for that? But, if anyone is honest and intelligent enough to fix the pathology in the lawless Bush WH, it is Chertoff. He had risen to United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The man did not belong as a functionary at Homeland Security — he is a lawyer and judge holding that temperament. This could be good news.
Comment by Nell —
March 19, 2007 @ 8:25 pm
I’m going to have to disagree strongly. I hope to hell it’s someone better than that. He was a pylon at Homeland Security, in the hockey sense of the word. He’s not an honest man, he’s part of the lawlessness.
Comment by Mona —
March 19, 2007 @ 8:43 pm
Supporting data?
Comment by Gsnorgathon —
March 19, 2007 @ 8:57 pm
He’s a member of the Bush administration. Not sufficient evidence, but it’s a start.
Seriously – I’d love evidence one way or the other, but at this point assuming a high-level Bush appointee is corrupt is a pretty safe bet.
Comment by Nell —
March 19, 2007 @ 8:58 pm
I realize you’re going to want evidence for that. I’m meeting’ed out at the moment, but if no one has come up with any by tomorrow, I’ll back it up.
Trackback by Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator —
March 19, 2007 @ 9:04 pm
Gonzales tells U.S. attorneys that he’s sorry…
WASHINGTON | Attorney General Alberto Gonzales apologized to the nation’s 93 U.S. attorneys in…
Comment by Thoreau —
March 19, 2007 @ 9:08 pm
I’m quite willing to believe that Chertoff is pretty good by the standards of the Bush administration.
The real question is whether he’s any good by any standard that actually matters.
Given that Rumsfeld was replaced by Gates, if Chertoff is as good as Mona claims and he replaces Gonzales it may be that the grownups are taking control again.
But the real question, the one that matters for the long haul, is whether they’ll repeal the PATRIOT provisions that let the AG appoint US attorneys without Senate confirmation. It doesn’t bother me too much if political appointees are fired on a political whim. It does, however, bother me if people are appointed to important positions without any oversight from an independent branch of government.
Comment by Jim Henley —
March 19, 2007 @ 9:31 pm
Groody.
Comment by Rich Puchalsky —
March 19, 2007 @ 10:14 pm
Who cares who replaces Gonzales? I certainly don’t. Is the brand of rubber stamp important?
Nothing will change in the Bush administration until its term is over. Not even impeachment would work; it’s rotten all the way down. Therefore, I hope that Gonzales stays; he’s crippled.
As for the fantasy that Chertoff is going to “fix” his bosses; come on. You just a year and a half ago stopped clapping for fairies with regard to the war. Don’t you think it’s time to generalize that?
Comment by Nell —
March 20, 2007 @ 6:08 am
His Wikipedia entry reveals him to be a complex man (clerked for Brennan!), and certainly no fool. But:
Chertoff is the co-author, along with Viet Dinh, of the USA PATRIOT Act, signed into law October 26, 2001. As head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, he advised the Central Intelligence Agency on the outer limits of legality in coercive interrogation sessions.
So, in my book, not an improvement.
Comment by Nell —
March 20, 2007 @ 6:10 am
Oh, and:
At the DOJ, he also came under fire as one of the chief architects of the Bush Administration’s legal strategies in the War on Terror, particularly regarding the detainment of thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants.
Comment by Jon H —
March 20, 2007 @ 8:07 am
“He’s a member of the Bush administration.”
Who was promoted.
Comment by John Emerson —
March 20, 2007 @ 10:20 am
He also looks like some kind of comic book character. He could go either way, but I see him more as a Lex Luthor type villain.
I realize that some people here may think of comic-book-ness as a good thing. So shoot me.
Comment by Wild Pegasus —
March 20, 2007 @ 6:41 pm
He was a pylon at Homeland Security, in the hockey sense of the word.
There aren’t any pylons in hockey.
- Josh