EVEN KARL ROVE FINDS THE CLUBBING OF A BABY SEAL DISTURBING-- AND WHEN THAT BABY SEAL IS NAMED ABU GONZO...

Both Christie at Firedoglake and a team from People For the American Way did solid jobs live blogging from the Senate Gonzales hearings today. What a circus! He was preparing for this? For a month?! So he could say he doesn't recall... anything?

Reactions from Republicans was complete dismay. Wingnut bloggers were wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth. One kook, founder of an extremist blog called Redstate, watched C-Span and asked "can we get some recommendations for a new AG?" Byron York, a far right propagandist at the National Review wrote: "It has been a disastrous morning for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. The major problem with his testimony is that Gonzales maintains, in essence, that he doesn't know why he fired at least some of the eight dismissed U.S. attorneys. When, under questioning by Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, Gonzales listed the reasons for each firing, it was clear that in a number of cases, he had reconstructed the reason for the dismissal after the fact. He didn't know why he fired them at the time, other than the action was recommended by senior Justice Department staff."


But Gonzales had an even worse problem with senators on the Judiciary Committee-- and not just Democrats. Ranking Republican Arlen Specter (PA) drew first blood when he felt his authority wasn't being respected. He was very harsh with Gonzales: "We have to evaluate whether you are really being forthright in saying that you, quote, 'should have been more precise,' close quote, when the reality is that your characterization of your participation is just significantly, if not totally, at variance with the facts."

Even more devastating to Gonzales-- and the Bush Regime-- was uber-right-wing Senator Tom Coburn (OK), who told Gonzo to resign: "But to me, there has to be consequences to accepting responsibility. And I would just say, Mr. Attorney General, it's my considered opinion that the exact same standards should be applied to you in how this was handled.  And it was handled incompetently. The communication was atrocious. It was inconsistent. It's generous to say that there were misstatements. That's a generous statement. And I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered. And I believe that the best way to put this behind us is your resignation."

Although I heard some GOP extremist refer to closeted Republican Lindsey Graham (SC) as "the Arlen Specter of The South," he's usually a very dependable Bush Regime rubber stamp. But he too took a couple of big bites out of Abu Gonzo. "Mr. Attorney General, most of this is a stretch. I think it's clear to me that some of these people just had personality conflicts with people in your office or at the White House and, you know, we made up reasons to fire them. Some of it sounds good. Some of it doesn't. And that's the lesson to be learned here... at the end of the day, you said something that struck me, 'That sometimes it just came down to these were not the right people at the right time.' If I applied that standard to you, what would you say?"

Even a kiss-ass like John Cornyn (R-TX) got in a slap "I have to tell you that the way that this investigation has been handled is just been-- been really deplorable." But the Republican senators' posturing was nothing compared to what anonymous White House operative were leaking. TV was abuzz with an assessment, halfway through the testimony, probably from Rove's office, that Gonzales "is going down in flames" and "not doing himself any favors."

Clueless as ever, Bush released a statement saying he was "pleased with the Attorney General's testimony today. After hours of testimony in which he answered all of the Senators' questions and provided thousands of pages of documents, he again showed that nothing improper occurred. He admitted the matter could have been handled much better, and he apologized for the disruption to the lives of the U.S. Attorneys involved, as well as for the lack of clarity in his initial responses." Bush isn't 100% alone on thinking Gonzales shouldn't be fired-- just 99.99%. The .01% belongs to his witless deputy press secretary, Dana Perino, who told reporters that "He has done a fantastic job in the Department of Justice."

So when does Orrin Hatch (R-UT) become Attorney General? And when does the Judiciary Committee get to question Rove. Did anyone else find it odd that Gonzo said he discussed the firings with Rove but that they didn't discuss it from a political perspective. Did they discuss it from a fashion perspective? Does Rove have some other talent aside from politics that they've been hiding from us?


UPDATE: BAD REVIEWS FOR GONZO'S ACT THE DAY AFTER

This morning's NY Times led the way: "If Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had gone to the Senate yesterday to convince the world that he ought to be fired, it’s hard to imagine how he could have done a better job, short of simply admitting the obvious: that the firing of eight United States attorneys was a partisan purge. Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch."

We don’t yet know whether Mr. Gonzales is merely so incompetent that he should be fired immediately, or whether he is covering something up.

But if we believe the testimony that neither he nor any other senior Justice Department official was calling the shots on the purge, then the public needs to know who was. That is why the Judiciary Committee must stick to its insistence that Mr. Rove, Ms. Miers and other White House officials testify in public and under oath and that all documents be turned over to Congress, including e-mail messages by Mr. Rove that the Republican Party has yet to produce.

William Rivers Pitt was scathing and very much on target. And Dana Milbank at the Washington Post comes right to the point: "Alberto Gonzales's tenure as attorney general was pronounced dead at 3:02 p.m. yesterday by Tom Coburn, M.D." An editorial in the same paper closes with a soundbyte we've all seen on TV and then an observation: "'The moment I believe I can no longer be effective I will resign as attorney general,' Mr. Gonzales said yesterday. That moment has arrived, whether or not the attorney general and the president are willing to acknowledge it."

And the Speaker of the House wasn't too impressed either.

The Attorney General is the defender of the Constitution and the chief law enforcement officer. The people of the United States must have absolute confidence in the integrity of their Attorney General.

By his actions and with his testimony yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has lost the trust of the American people. The nation cannot have a chief law enforcement officer whose candor and judgment are in serious question.

The President should restore credibility to the office of the Attorney General. Alberto Gonzales must resign.