WILL INVESTIGATIONS LEAD TO IMPEACHMENT OF GONZALES? OR WILL HE RESIGN INSTEAD?

OK, so we know the Bush Regime was playing fast and loose with the Justice system by forcing out 8 federal prosecutors who were recalcitrant about politicizing their positions. In San Diego they axed Carol Lam because they were pissed off she exposed Bush's pal Randy "Duke" Cunningham and feared her pursuit of justice was leading to congressmen Jerry Lewis, Duncan Hunter, John Doolittle and to Bush himself, who sold a presidential pardon to crooked Republican millionaire Thomas Kontogiannis through Cunningham for $400,000. Now it turns out New Mexico Congresswoman Heather Wilson and her patron Senator Pete Domenici pressured the prosecutor there to speed up an investigation that they felt would help her electorally if it turned out the way they wanted it to turn it. When he refused to play ball, they demanded that Gonzales fire him, which he did.

Already there is a shocking new revelation in this unseemly matter. Tom DiBiagio, "the former federal prosecutor in Maryland said Monday that he was forced out in early 2005 because of political pressure stemming from public corruption investigations involving associates of the state’s governor, a Republican. 'There was direct pressure not to pursue these investigations,' said the former prosecutor, Thomas M. DiBiagio. 'The practical impact was to intimidate my office and shut down the investigations.'"


Today Congressional hearings begin about this outrageous perversion of justice. Although Gonzales claimed he had better things to do with his time, his ass is being hauled before the Senate and House investigating committees (where he will tell them this is all a p.r. problem that didn't go smoothly). It looks like the Regime has decided on their scapegoat in all this-- Michael Battle, who called all 7 prosecutors and told them they were fired. The Bush Regime hopes to save Gonzales from impeachment by tossing Battle overboard. Just as hearings begin in the Senate and House, they announced Battle-- more a messenger than an executioner in this matter-- is leaving the Justice Department.

Today's New York Times points to the relationship between investigations into the outrageous (and impeachable) way the Bush Regime has treated our wounded military men and women and investigations into the way they have perverted justice: oversight.

Democratic leaders say it is the beginning of a fundamentally different power relationship between Congress and the Bush administration. Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat who is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said of the administration: “In the past, they would stonewall this through a news cycle and know they could ride it out. Now they know there's a Congress of another party, with the power of subpoenas, the power to hold hearings, the power to ask questions.”

Gonzales and the Bush Regime, of course, dispute all charges against them. Everyone else is wrong; all truth is with them. (Keep in mind that all of these ousted prosecutors are Republicans and all were political appointees of the Bush Regime and all just wanted to pursue crime wherever it led, regardless of politics.) Gonzales is now threatening the fired prosecutors, telling them that if they testify against the Regime, the Regime will come after them. Is this America or is this Nazi Germany?

A high-ranking Justice Department official [Michael Elston] told one of the U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration that if any of them continued to criticize the administration for their ousters, previously undisclosed details about the reasons they were fired might be released, two of the ousted prosecutors told McClatchy Newspapers.

Our Justice Department is being run by a pack of corrupt gangsters. Emanuel was bragging about the changing relationship between the Bush Regime and Congress. Let's see him call for Gonzales' impeachment.









BYE-BYE, PETEY 'N' HEATHER!
(AND MAYBE NEXT UP: "SEE YA, TORTURE GUY!"?)

Aww, poor Petey D! Poor Heather W! All they did was make those totally harmless little phone calls--oh, and maybe lie about them just a little. And now people, including fellow Republicans in their own state of New Mexico, are talking about them as if they're electoral toast. Aww!

Well, good riddance! Readers may recall that I've been hot about this business of blatantly politicizing U.S. attorneys' tenure since the dawn of the firing scandal. Of course everything in the execuive branch is political, including the U.S. attorneys--but there are limits. Of course in the Bush regime "limits" are what you trample over on your way to pillaging and plundering your next target. But really, there are limits, and if I wore a hat, I'd take it off to the congressional Democrats who've stayed the course pursuing this flagrantly unacceptable outrage. By rights, it should be sufficient grounds for the impeachment and removal of Chimpy the Prez. In reality, I'm stunned that a matter of such real but obscure substance--the fairness and effectiveness of the federal justice system rests on the trustworthiness of all those U.S. attorneys, political appointeees all but still some of our most crucial public servants--has gotten this much attention.

Already we're at the stage of hurling flunkies off the hard-chugging Chimpy Scapegoat Express. This Michael Battle creep probably thought he was some hot stuff 'cause the big boys let him be the button man who "took out" all those insufficiently loyal losers they'd marked for termination. Now he knows he's just the pathetic stooge of a bunch of grander stooges. Next up on the "hit" parade, let us hope: AG "Idiot Al" ("The Torture Guy") Gonzales--and after Idiot Al, well, maybe this housecleaning impulse will take hold.--Ken