The Administration

When did the Alberto Gonzales resignation vigil commence? As tiring as we find it, it is hard to imagine how he drags himself to work and back each day. But yesterday's pummeling at the Gonzales hearing pleased President Bush. And Gonzales still has the "confidence" of the president — one of my all-time favorite Washington-scandal expressions. I am beginning to think this means Bush was glad Gonzales was blasted and that he is "confident" Gonzales will see the writing he has thus far failed to notice on the wall.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), not considered even remotely to be a reflexive Bushie, had stuck by Gonzales but had had enough. Before Gonzales testified, Specter said the attorney general's characterization of his participation has been "significantly, if not totally, at variance with the facts." After Gonzales spent five hours trying to explain all the discrepancies and still could not remember important things like a conversation with President Bush, Specter said, "I think we have gone about as far as we can go ... we have not gotten really answers." Read more...

The Democrats in Congress are now thinking of making their timetable for withdrawal from Iraq "advisory" — I just couldn't wait to see what they would come up with to pedal back. Should they proceed with their current  strategy, the Democrats' plan will have standards for military readiness that can be waivered and withdrawal dates that are advisory. What does this mean? It means status quo, Bush wins; this sounds like a package of non-binding, Democratic advice on its way to the president. He is The Decider, but hey guys, The Advice Taker he is not.

Knowing they are likely to lose some votes of anti-war Democrats by softening the terms for withdrawal, some Democrats are pushing a plan to keep sending 60-day amounts of war funding to drag this out. But since Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, seems to think June 1 is a final date for Congress to submit a funding bill that won't be vetoed, that 60-day calendar would have had to start by now.

Clearly the Democrats need to drag this veto standoff out as long as possible, but it still looks like there is no way for Bush to lose this fight.

President Bush, still fresh from his recent trip to South America, touted progress in sealing a deal with Brazil to develop its ethanol industry for export to the United States. In a sense this was Bush's double play against both the Middle East and Venezuela President Hugo Chávez who, despite being thorns in Mr. Bush's side, cannot be ignored as long as the U.S. remains dependent on foreign oil. Clearly, this new deal made Chávez nervous. Not only did he scamper to Argentina during Bush's Brazil visit to drum up the anti-American fervor, he dragged Cuba's Fidel Castro out of his deathbed to rail against the diversion of food crops to biofuel production. Antics aside, though, Chávez and Castro have a point: Ever since Bush unveiled his Renewable Fuel Standards initiative — requiring the country to use 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel over the next six years — demand for corn has gone through the roof, increasing the prices of dependent commodities from wheat futures to pork bellies. Is America ready to pay more for food in exchange for lessened dependence on foreign oil? We'll see.

Now that Don Imus has been fired, who else should be pink-slipped?

Here are my candidates:

Alberto Gonzales: I have lots of friends at the Justice Department, so this may seem hard. But it ain’t. Al has got to go. The days are counting down for this Administration, and for it to be able to get anything done with the limited time left, it needs to throw any excess baggage overboard. In other words, if you aren’t helping, you are hurting.

Nancy Pelosi: First Syria, next stop Iran? Let’s stop confusing the world, and leave diplomacy with the Executive Branch. Can you imagine if Newt decided to sit down with Milosevic while he was ethnic-cleansing the Balkans? Read more...

As Chuck Hagel said, America rejected a king long ago. As George Will wrote, some of the seizures of presidential power demonstrate monarchical tendencies.

As former Congressman Bob Barr and former House Republican Leader Dick Armey have said, some of these extreme actions violate classic notions of conservatism, Republicanism and common sense.

These individuals and other very principled conservatives have spoken out strongly and clearly. They are not liberals, Democrats or progressives, and they would disagree with much of what I write on many things, but have spoken out with integrity on matters that have gone terribly wrong. Read more...

Well, what do you know? President Bush wants to meet with congressional Democrats. He wants to meet with them to discuss funding for the war in Iraq. In fact, he’s invited them down to the White House next Tuesday, April 17.

There’s only one catch. Bush told them ahead of time: Unless you’re coming down here to agree with me 100 percent, don’t bother.

And, in response, Democrats did the right thing. Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) told Bush: You say ahead of time you won’t budge. Guess what, George? You can take your meeting and shove it. Read more...

What stunning news. The White House can't find a general interested in being war czar in charge of overseeing both operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. If we held a "Most Thankless Job" contest, where would War Czar for the Bush wars of 2007 rank?

One prospect, retired Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan, former NATO commander, told the Washington Post "they don't know where the hell they're going," and explained that the power of hawks like Vice President Cheney still trumps the realists in the administration who are searching for an end to the war. "So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks,'" he said in what is considered in Washington to be a VERY bold on-the-record statement for a military man. Read more...

A lot of media time has focused on the U.S. attorneys scandal and players such as Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling, staffers who suddenly hit the spotlight. When I read the 33-year-old Goodling’s bio of being educated at a very conservative school in Pennsylvania, Messiah College, and the law school founded by Pat Robertson, Regent Law, in Virginia Beach, bells went off in my head.

I remember reading several articles about the sudden change in the Justice Department’s recruiting of lawyers early on in the Bush administration. Under John Ashcroft, many of the new lawyers were not chosen on the basis of competence, performance, legal training or law school record, but rather by their ideology and their politics. Read more...

Thomas Paine once wrote that in absolute governments, the King is law, and in free nations, the Law is king.

The fundamental problem is not that Alberto Gonzales lied, prevaricated, misrepresented or played Pinocchio when he falsely stated he was not involved in the decisions to fire the U.S. attorneys. Those actions were wrong and appropriate grounds for removal, but there is much, much worse.

Alberto Gonzales is a basically decent guy, a second-tier-quality lawyer elevated to great heights by blind obedience to the concept of absolute power and the unwise president who claims it for himself on matters that grossly violate the American notion of the rule of law.

Gonzales-ism is the problem, not Gonzales. Read more...

There is too much hatred, derision, disrespect, smearing, slander, polarization, division and bigotry that has infected American politics and American media.

What Don Imus said about the Rutgers women's basketball team was only the latest example of a sickness that is spreading — and in certain corporate boardrooms even encouraged as good for business.

This problem is far larger than Imus, the idea that it's profitable, beneficial or cute to spit hate, venom, or ugliness in our politics and media. Read more...