As usual, but particularly on this, I speak for myself only. My views are not necessarily shared by TalkLeft or its contributors.

What Hunter said. Of course, if the Senate had listened to the Big Orange Hate Filled Site back in January 2005, we would not be in this Gonzo mess in the first place:

We oppose the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to the position of Attorney General of the United States, and we urge every United States Senator to vote against him. . . . With this nomination, we have arrived at a crossroads as a nation. Now is the time for all citizens of conscience to stand up and take responsibility for what the world saw, and, truly, much that we have not seen, at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. We oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, and we urge the Senate to reject him.

As TalkLeft noted here, Dr. Anna Pou is a skilled physician who performed heroically during Hurricane Katrina, risking her own life to assist patients who were stranded at New Orleans' Memorial Medical Center. She was rewarded with an arrest and a murder investigation as prosecutors claimed she had deliberately ended the lives of patients "who could not easily be evacuated from the hospital."

Dr. Pou has always denied the accusation. She had the support of the Louisiana State Medical Society, and apparently of a judge who tired of the seemingly endless investigation. Fortunately for Dr. Pou, the ordeal is over. A grand jury refused to indict her.

The AMA, expressing its pleasure with that decision, said:

"The AMA continues to be very concerned about criminalizing decisions about patient care, especially those made during the chaotic aftermath of a disaster, when medical personnel and supplies are severely compromised."

A day after CNN announced that it was hiring Campbell Brown to replace one of its prime-time hosts, presumably Paula Zahn, Ms. Zahn confirmed today that she was leaving the cable channel, effective Aug. 2.

The unraveling of “Paula Zahn Now,” which made its debut at 8 p.m. in spring 2003, was ultimately a function of ratings. Though CNN took pains recently to note that the number of viewers for the show had ticked upward earlier this year, Ms. Zahn’s task remained a Herculean one.

The estimated 558,000 viewers her program has been drawing, on average, each weeknight this year, according to Nielsen Media Research, represents less than a quarter of the nearly 2.3 million who watch “The O’Reilly Factor” with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. Ms. Zahn’s program also draws about 100,000 fewer viewers a night than “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on MSNBC.

O'Reilly has been losing viewership, particularly in the key 25-54 demographic so it was not O'Reilly that did Zahn in. It was Olbermann, whose Countdown program is now the MSNBC flagship and ratings driver. I do wonder what CNN thinks Campbell Brown can do for them in the time slot. Mrs. Dan Senor (of Iraqi CPA fame) will, one assumes, attempt to do better in the 25-54 demo. But how she steals from Olbermann is hard to see. I guess she will be going after O'Reilly to get younger conservative viewers. We'll see.

In a credibility contest between James Comey, the former number 2 in the Justice Department who earned a reputation as a tough-minded but honest prosecutor, and Alberto Gonzales, there's no contest at all. When Gonzales, during today's Senate testimony, contradicted Comey's earlier testimony about Gonzales' visit to a hospitalized John Ashcroft, Gonzales' testimony was greeted -- at least by some senators, including Republican Arlen Specter -- with the scorn it deserved.

Mr. Specter signaled that he did not accept Mr. Gonzales’s explanation about the hospital incident. “What credibility is left for you?” the senator asked at one point.

Mr. Specter has accused Mr. Gonzales before of dodging questions, and he did so again today. At one point, the senator said, “I see it’s hopeless.” At another point, he said acidly, “Let’s see if somewhere, somehow we can find a question that you’ll answer.”

The challenge is not just to find a question that Gonzales is willing to answer, but one he's willing to answer truthfully.

Markos writes:

Hillary Clinton Communications Direct Howard Wolfson will go on O'Reilly's program (8 p.m.) to debate him on YearlyKos. . . . Hillary appears invested in the netroots, which is a great thing for all of us.

Peter Daou is the Clinton campaign's internet communications director. One of the folks who get it. It seems clear that Peter has had a voice in the room on this issue. And clearly the Clinton camp listened.

This is simply, imo, a brilliant move by the Clinton campaign. To get into a fight with O'Reilly defending the Netroots? To defend partisan Dems, the progressive base, against the noxious O'Reilly? Whatever you think of the Clintons, NO ONE can doubt for a moment their superior ability at the art of politics. And that matters.

Joe Klein, June 2006:

What can the Democrats do? They can play politics or be responsible. The political option is to embrace "cut and run"; call for an immediate withdrawal, as Kerry did; and hope the public is so sick of Bush and sick of the war that it will punish the g.o.p. in the fall. But embracing defeat is a risky political strategy, especially for a party not known for its warrior ethic. In fact, the responsible path is the Democrats' only politically plausible choice: they will have to give yet another new Iraqi government one last shot to succeed. This time, U.S. military sources say, the measure of success is simple: Operation Forward Together, the massive joint military effort launched last week to finally try to secure Baghdad, has to work. If Baghdad isn't stabilized, the war is lost. "I know it's the cliche of the war," an Army counterinsurgency specialist told me last week. "But we'll know in the next six months—and this time, it'll be the last next six months we get."

Joe Klein, today:

How to Elect a Republican President (and Congress) in 2008

. . . Allow the Jacobin--off with their heads!--wing of the party to control the agenda. Keep calling for votes on Iraq that will fail. Don't call for votes on Iraq that might succeed (like the Salazar-Alexander Amendment).

Even though the Republican field is prohibitively pathetic, and the President's ratings have now reached the mid-twenties, a Democratic defeat in 2008 in entirely possibly if the public comes to believe that Democrats are only interested in futile, symbolic gestures.

Because the Alexander-Salazar Amendment has such teeth. Given how wrong Joe was in 2006, it is surprising he has no sign of humility now. But he would not be Joe Klein if he did.

Last week, Governor Charlie Christ ended the suspension on executions in the state. Other objections are emerging.

At a hearing Sunday in a case involving an upcoming execution, Circuit Judge Carven Angel in Ocala expressed additional objections:

Circuit Judge Carven Angel in Ocala questioned the "experience and competence" of the hooded executioner who's paid by the state to apply lethal chemicals in the death chamber.

The Judge noted that the job of executioner, which pays $150.00 per execution, is open to those 18 and older. The law provides his or her identity be kept secret.

"I don't think that any 18-year-old executioner with the pressure of a governor's warrant behind him to carry out an execution, and with the pressure of the whole world, the press and the whole world in front of him, and looking at him, is going to have enough experience and competence to stop an execution when it needs to be stopped," the judge said, according to the transcript. "I just don't think that's going to happen."

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Glenn Greenwald makes an excellent point about the unquestioning nature of Media scrutiny of statements by the U.S. military, especially Generals, very especially, General David Petraeus:

Klein, while paying lip service to "surge" opposition, hails Petraeus' brilliant counter-insurgency strategies and spends his time demonizing war opponents as morons while lavishing "surge" proponents and Bush's chosen military commanders with the most obsequious praise. That is who Col. Boylan [Petraeus' press liaison] then gets to hold up as an example of "liberal" "journalists" to whom Gen. Petreaus has given interviews. That is why there are few things more damaging than how reverent and gullible and authority-worshipping and Beltway-defending are those assigned to play the "liberal pundit" role in the Beltway court.

This phenomenon is not limited to the Joe Kleins of the Media. Too often our representatives, witness Sens. Clinton and Biden discussing withdrawal from Iraq last night, do too. It is why I have such trepidation about Petraeus' September report.

More.

There were a flurry of motions yesterday in the case of Qwest former CEO Joe Nacchio who faces sentencing Friday in Denver. Among them was a motion for bail pending appeal. I discuss them at length today at 5280.com.

As I wrote, the test for bail pending appeal is set by statute.

A defendant is entitled to bail pending appeal if he is not a flight or safety risk, the appeal is not for purposes of delay, and he will raise a “substantial question” on appeal which, if decided in his favor, will likely result in reversal of the conviction or a new trial.

In the Tenth Circuit, the Court has interpreted “substantial question” to mean:

.... a “close” question or one that very well could be decided the other way.’”

As I wrote when Scooter Libby was seeking bond pending appeal,

It's not necessary that Judge Walton believe he was wrong, or that reversal is probable, only that the issue presents a close question or one that could have been decided the other way.

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The conservative Republican site Red State says:

Indeed, it has been conceded from the outset that Congress has the power to bring the war to an end by stopping all funding. And if [NYTimes Editorial writer] Adam Cohen had been paying attention, he might have noticed that ever since the beginning of the 110th Congress, Republicans--including those found in the Bush Administration--have been daring Democrats to bring an end to the war by stopping all funding if they believe so strongly that the war and America's continued presence in Iraq is a mistake.

President Bush has said the same thing. John Yoo says the same thing. Bruce Fein says the same thing. This appears to be a settled question in the political debate.

(Update: Firedoglake is live-blogging the hearing -- Part 1 and 2 so far.)

Attorney General Gonzales, scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, says in his prepared testimony that he has no intention of resigning.

"I could walk away, or I could devote my time, effort and energy to fix the problems," Gonzales said.

"Since I have never been one to quit, I decided that the best course of action was to remain here and fix the problems. That is exactly what I am doing."

More quotes from his statement are here. Why should he get the opportunity to fix problems he either created or negligently allowed to occur on his watch?

As to the topics he'll be quizzed about, TPMuckraker lists these:

Two federal judges Monday ordered the creation of an oversight panel to determine whether overcrowding is causing the pathetic lack of medical and mental health care to inmates.

If the panel determines they are, it would have authority to make drastic changes in the system, including ordering the early release of prisoners.

"This is an historic moment; we're hoping it means we will take a step back to constitutionally operated prisons," said inmate attorney Michael Bien, who petitioned the court for a federal takeover. "Our prisons are horrific places, they are an embarrassment to all of us. We think these very reasoned, deliberate and careful decisions by both judges represent a breath of hope that we can somehow get control of over the prisons again."

Gov. Schwarzenegger promised reform and didn't come through. He and the state legislature thought by pumping $7.4 billion into prison expansion, all would be fixed.

Now, a prison cap is possible. But it's not likely to result in mass early release of inmates.

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