E Pluribus Unum

(Cross posted on Daily Kos)

Count me among that small group of people who thinks AG Gonzalez is not leaving office any time soon. Yes, I saw the same hearings you did. But despite all their "calling for Gonzalez to resign," I certainly don't see Congress removing him from office.

Of course this is just my opinion and I might be proven wrong this weekend, but I think come Monday morning Gonzalez will show up for work at the Justice Department. After all, only two people have anything to say about whether he stays or goes -- Bush and Gonzalez himself.

Now Dahlia Lithwick comes right out and says it: Gonzalez' testimony this week was a home run for the Bushies:

[HIs testimony] reflects either a Harvard-trained lawyer—and former state Supreme Court judge—with absolutely no command of the facts or the law, or it reveals a proponent of the unitary executive theory with absolutely nothing to prove. Gonzales' failure to even mount a defense; his posture of barely tolerating congressional inquiries; his refusal to concede that he owed the Senate any explanation or any evidence; his refusal to even accept that he bore some burden of proof—all of it tots up to a masterful display of the perfect contempt felt by the Bush executive branch for this Congress and its pretensions of oversight. In the plainest sense, Gonzales elevated the Bush legal doctrine of "Because I said so" into a public spectacle.

In other words, Gonzalez (and Bush) believe nothing untoward occurred because, well, like Nixon said: "When the president does it that means that it is not illegal."

From that perspective, Rove, Bush, Gonzalez -- they're all bulletproof. From that perspective, Gonzalez did Congress a favor just by showing up!

Gonzales did exactly what he needed to do yesterday. He took a high, inside pitch to the head for the team (nobody wants to look like a dolt on national television) but hit a massive home run for the notion that at the end of the day, congressional oversight over the executive branch is little more than empty theatre.

How do you fix this mess? Well, I'm not sure you can impeach the AG. And even if you could, this scandal shouldn't end with his removal. You need to investigate (and, if necessary) prosecute the whole corrupt lot of them: Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, Assistant Attorney General William Moschella and former chief of staff Kyle Sampson, for starters. Joe Conason is calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor and I think he's got that right.