HAS THE MEDAL OF FREEDOM AWARD BEEN MADE YET? THE ROOM FOR THE PRESENTATION IS BOOKED AND SPRUCED UP?

The NY DAILY NEWS may well be the most ridiculous newspaper in a major city but it does have a great and well-connected Washington bureau and Tom DeFrank gets the inside scoop from his pals in the Bush White House more reliably than the more respectable dailies. And today he's reporting that, despite Bush's noisy-- albeit phony-- show of support for Gonzales, the Attorney General's exist is "inevitable."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales clung to power by a thread yesterday, and some Bush officials said his departure was now inevitable.
"Gonzales is going to have to resign soon," a senior Republican official told the Daily News last night. "The only reason it hasn't happened already is Bush's personal reluctance. He's the guy who has to call him and tell him he has to leave."
President Bush "wants to fight, but that will change because it has to," the official said.
The source added that Gonzales has now lost the confidence of key Republican senators, several of whom face serious reelection battles in 2008.
"Gonzales thinks he can hold on because he's the President's friend," said a former Bush Justice Department official. "But that'll change once he hears they're shopping around."

And one thing the Regime can ill-afford is a serious investigation that leads back to Bush in a way that forces impeachment. Along those lines John Conyers (chair of the House Judiciary Committee) and Linda Sanchez (chair of the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law) are seeking subpoenas for Rove and Miers.


UPDATE: FIRST GOP PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDER-- KIND OF-- CALLS FOR GONZALES TO RESIGN. WHATS' NEXT? BEN NELSON?

Far right xenophobe and racist, Tom Tancredo, whose hatred of Mexicans has been thoroughly documented, becomes the first Republican seeking his party's useless 2008 presidential nomination to call on Gonzales to resign. Instead of saying Gonzales should go back to where he (or his ancestors) came from, Tancredo took the high road.

"Alberto Gonzales has repeatedly shown that he is unwilling to enforce the law and unable to effectively manage the department. While I do not believe the dismissal of these eight political appointees warrants Mr. Gonzales' removal, his total mishandling of the affair is simply the latest in a series of leadership failures at the Justice Department... Gonzales' legacy at the DOJ has been one of misplaced priorities, political miscalculation, and a failure to enforce the laws which he has sworn to uphold. I think that it is time for him to move on."