IMPEACH BUSH

What a morning it's been for devotees of the U.S. Attorney scandal. While former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about ghoulish behavior on the part of then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General himself was throwing under the bus his former deputy, Paul J. McNulty, who resigned under fire yesterday from the Justice Department. Got that? The guy who should be Attorney General was highlighting the backhanded way in which the current Attorney General operated back in 2004. And Gonzales, the guy who has kept his job thanks to blind loyalty on the part of President Bush, was unable and unwilling to show any measure of fealty to his own subordinate, savaging him less than 24 hours after McNulty decided to go.

All of a sudden, Gonzales, the man who last week said he would take "responsibility" for the disaster at the Justice Department, now is saying that "You have to remember, at the end of the day, the recommendations reflected the views of the deputy attorney general. He signed off on the names... And he would know better than anyone else, anyone in this room, anyone -- again, the deputy attorney general would know best about the qualifications and the experiences of the United States attorneys community, and he signed off on the names." I am sure this golden nugget of blame came as a surprise to McNulty, who expressed some frustration earlier in this saga for not being in the loop on the firings. And remember that Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling, the two high-ranking Justice Department officials integral in the prosecutor purge, were part of the House of Gonzales and not part of Team McNulty.

Anyone out there think that we won't see be hearing again from McNulty, under oath and with immunity, before Congress? Anyone surprised that Gonzales would immediately blame his deputy but still continue to deflect his own measure of blame for the scandal? Anyone out there still think that Gonzales is the type of leader likely to inspire confidence and respect among his employees at Justice? I didn't think so. Gonzales' treatment of McNulty represents a new low for the Attorney General in a story marked by similar valleys-- the guy who refuses to be candid with the Congress blasts the guy who is.

And speaking of candid, I hope that some of you were able to see live (here it is online) Comey's account of the sinister work performed in 2004 by Gonzales and Andrew Card, then White House chief of staff. John Ashcroft, then Attorney General, was seriously ill and at hospital. Comey was acting Attorney General. When asked by Gonzales and Card to sign off on the (illegal) National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, Comey understandably refused to do so. Case closed, right? No. The Andrew and Alberto Show travelled to the hospital and tried to get Ashcroft's consent to the program. Comey stood in the way, literally, at Ashcroft's hospital bed. It got so bad, Comey told the Committee, that he refused to meet with Card and Company without a witness (namely, then Solicitor General Ted Olsen) being present. It's no wonder that senators on both sides of the aisle were talking about Watergate before the morning was out.