Alberto Gonzales Vows to Stay on the Job

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 01:30:00 AM EST
Tags: Alberto Gonzales (all tags)

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(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:

This time around, in addition to the usual battery of questions about the firings, he'll have to respond to Monica Goodling's revelation that Gonzales talked to her about her recollection of the firing process shortly after Congress launched its investigation. The Justice Department's internal probe of the firings has expanded to include whether Gonzales might have been improperly trying to shape Goodling's future testimony. He's also sure to get questions about why he falsely testified to Congress that he didn't know of any counterterrorism abuses by the FBI.

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Alberto Gonzales Vows to Stay on the Job | 8 comments (8 topical)

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Shorter Gonzalez: (none / 0) (#1)
by aj12754 on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:31:55 AM EST

I started the fire -- let me pee on it.

What Frustrates you... (none / 0) (#2)
by jarober on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:53:23 AM EST

What frustrates you is that unlike previous administrations (of both parties), high officials in this one aren't asked to step down just because Congress decided to launch an investigation.

You want Gonzales gone? Then get the Congress to impeach him. Right now, this is all political theater, and the left is starting to get frustrated because the administration won't play along.

: wrong as always (none / 0) (#5)
by Sailor on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 10:07:11 AM EST

what's frustrating is to have the worst president in history being protected by the worst AG in hisory.

Webcast on Senate.gov (none / 0) (#3)
by joejoejoe on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 09:38:09 AM EST

The Senate Judiciary Committee website has a live webcast of the hearing. AG Gonzales is getting pummelled so far by Leahy and Specter. Specter mentioned possibly convening a committe in Congress to hear the charges of crimes if the President cuts off access to the courts to enforce subpoenas. Specter mentioned the Judge Alcee Hastings impeachment proceeding as precedent.

Orrin Hatch, hack (none / 0) (#4)
by joejoejoe on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 09:49:09 AM EST

So much for the grilling. Sen. Hatch is up serving up softballs on a tee for Gonzales.


: But Schumer (none / 0) (#7)
by aj12754 on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 11:42:43 AM EST

just nailed him to the wall.

Another Spying Program (none / 0) (#6)
by squeaky on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 11:29:05 AM EST

Looks like there are other secret warrantless spying programs than just the NSA one:

The disagreement that occurred was about other intelligence activities and the reason for the visit to the hospital was about other intelligence activities. It was not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people.

think progress

Gonzo's doing his weeble imitation (none / 0) (#8)
by scribe on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 11:54:57 AM EST

you know, as in: "weebles wobble but they don't fall down."

But, more seriously, he's getting pounded with questions like "which one of you was telling the truth", when confronted with two differing testimonial accounts about events. This has happened repeatedly.

He just got asked why he was revealing the information about the Surveillance program - whether he had permission to reveal the classified information. His answer: waffle, waffle, waffle, no, I didn't. Gasps in the room.

Be wary of that "appoint a special prosecutor" proposal, as Clement is a stone Federalist and a Bushie loyalist.