THE NATURE OF JUSTICE: MONICA GOODLING, ABU GONZALES, THE U.S. SENATE ELECTIONS

Lately I've talked a bit about the insidious nature of the Republican Party's "Mormon Mafia." The Bush Regime has also been using shock troops from Pat Robertson's shady Regent "university" and other Buy Bull Schools as zombies strictly trained to eschew independent thought in favor of hierarchal obedience. Dahlia Lithwick explains how Pat Robertson's law school is changing America at Slate and in today's Washington Post with the help of confused, brain-dead little automatons like Monica Goodling.

A 1995 graduate of Messiah College, an evangelical Christian school, and a 1999 graduate of Pat Robertson's Regent University Law School, Goodling is an improbable character for a political scandal. Her chief claim to professional fame appears to have been loyalty to the president and to the process of reshaping the Justice Department in his image (and, thus, His image). A former career official there told the Washington Post that Goodling "forced many very talented career people out of main Justice so she could replace them with junior people that were either loyal to the administration or would score her some points." And as she rose at Justice, a former classmate said, Goodling "developed a very positive reputation for people coming from Christian schools into Washington looking for employment in government, always ready to offer encouragement and be a sounding board."

For the past month, every morning at breakfast I've sat down with my handy little pocket-sized U.S. Constitution and read it while starting my day with some delicious and healthy victuals-- usually half a melon or papaya stuffed with various berries, lemon juice, raw pecans and ground-up flaxseeds. There are 7 Articles that make up the original Constitution and the last one, the 7th, just pertains to ratification. The 6th Article is the last one with anything substantive about how the Founding Fathers felt the new country they were founding needed to be run. The very last clause of the Article VI is one they probably don't spend much time on at Regent or at other Buy Bull schools-- unless it is to plot ways to get around it or rid of it:

no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the Unites States.

I doubt Alberto Gonzales eats a healthy breakfast and I doubt he spends much time reading the Constitution; he's too busy presiding over the Departent of Chaos. His unrelenting attacks on behalf of the Bush Regime on the Constitution have been shocking, even to the few honest Republicans left paying any attention. (They wouldn't have been graduates of make-believe colleges, Liberty "University," Regent "University" or Superstition U.)

Gonzales acknowledged that the Constitution declares "habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless ... in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.'' But he insisted that "there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution.''

Specter was incredulous, asking how the Constitution could bar the suspension of a right that didn't exist -- a right, he noted, that was first recognized in medieval England as a shield against the king's power to dispatch troublesome subjects to royal dungeons.

Even extreme right wing loons with the very best Wingnutia pedigrees have been repelled by Abu Gonzales' cavalier attitude towards the Constitution. Adolph Hitler's Nazi Regime and George Bush's Republican Regime see eye to eye on treaties and constitutions and things like that being mere scraps of annoying and bothersome paper. The Senate should have been more serious in their deliberations when Bush nominated Gonzales to be Attorney General. Confirming someone like Gonzales guaranteed zombies like Goodling.

Gonzales may be forced to resign in the next week or two-- it's likely-- but what about the senators who confirmed this man? Were they doing a good job or should they be fired too? One third of the Senate is up for re-election next year. Every single Republican facing the voters in 2008 voted to confirm Gonzales, as did all but 36 Democrats. I would like to recommend that you keep in mind the names of a few senators whose re-elections might be in jeopardy because of their rubber stamping of Bush's toxic agenda.

Alexander (R-TN)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Graham (R-SC)
McConnell (R-KY)
Sessions (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Sununu (R-NH)
Warner (R-VA)

Abandoning the Democrats working diligently to derail Gonzales and the travesty he predictably made of the Department of Justice were the usual suspects like Lieberman and the two reactionary Nelsons, Ben from Nebraska and Bill from Florida, but the 3 of them are safe from the voters for 5 more years. Faithless Democrats up for re-election-- for whom the DSCC will soon come asking you for contributions to save their undeserving necks-- are Landrieu (D-LA) and Pryor (D-AR).


UPDATE: WHAT'S IT GOING TO TAKE FOR BUSH TO FIRE GONZALES? MUST RIGHT WING MANIACS LIKE NEWT GINGRICH AND HOLY JOE LIEBERMAN TELL HIM HE HAS TO DO IT?

Well, it's unlikely that Joe Lieberman-- who got in a fight with Snarlin' Arlen on CNN today, Specter defending Speaker Pelosi's trip to Syria and Lieberman duly reading his Rove talking points-- will ever go against Bush on this, but Newt Gingrich just did.

Joining a growing list of Republicans, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should consider resigning. The possible presidential candidate said the botched firing of U.S. attorneys has destroyed Gonzales' credibility as the nation's top law enforcer.

"I think the country, in fact, would be much better served to have a new team at the Justice Department, across the board," Gingrich said. "I cannot imagine how he is going to be effective for the rest of this administration. ... They're going to be involved in endless hearings."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, who is helping lead the investigation into the firing of eight federal prosecutors, said Gingrich's comments pointed to building bipartisan support for a new attorney general.

Somehow I don't think bipartisanship is what Gingrich had in mind. But it is becoming more and more obvious to Republicans in DC that the sooner they bury Gonzales' already rigid, stinking corpse, the fewer Republicans facing the electorate next year will have another unanswerable question from voters to confront.