NEITHER MICHAEL VICK NOR ALBERTO GONZALES DID ANYTHING THAT WRONG, THEY EACH CLAIM

Snarlin' Arlen vs Alberto

Today the Atlanta Falcons' quarterback, Michael Vick, pleaded not guilty to charges that he was "involved" in a dog fighting conspiracy-- on his property. "Investigators found graves of dogs on the grounds of the Bad Newz Kennels, which Mr. Vick has owned since 2002. The [18-page] indictment said dogs that lost fights were put to death by drowning, hanging, gunshot, electrocution or being slammed to the ground." Nike pulled back the release of their new "Air Zoom Vick V athletic shoe" and the Falcons suspended him for now.

The evidence of far more serious wrong doing by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in a great many extremely grave matters is much more powerful than the case against Vicks. Today his own FBI Director, Robert Mueller III, called him a lying sack of shit (although in different words. You're not allowed to say "liar" or anything like it in the Congress).

Mr. Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee that the Bush administration’s secret eavesdropping program was the main topic at an encounter in the hospital room of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft on March 10, 2004, contrary to what Mr. Gonzales told a Senate panel on Tuesday.

At the time, Mr. Gonzales was the White House counsel, and Mr. Ashcroft was recovering from gall bladder surgery. That March night, Mr. Gonzales went to the hospital room with Andrew H. Card Jr., then White House chief of staff.

In his testimony before the Senate panel on Tuesday, Mr. Gonzales said the subject in the hospital room was “intelligence activities” under debate in the administration, but not the secret eavesdropping program.

But Mr. Mueller contradicted that version of events today, several hours after four Senate Democrats called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate whether Mr. Gonzales perjured himself before Congress.

Four Senators had already called on the Soliciter General, Paul Clement, to immediately hire a Special Prosecutor to deal with Gonzales' repeated perjury at his Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. The 4 senators-- Russ Feingold, Sheldon Whitehouse, Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer-- are all Democrats, but at least one Republican seems as steamed as they are (and in tomorrow's Post Eugene Robinson makes the case in Bedtime for Gonzo that a feeling of bipartisanship is growing up around the desire of almost everyone to get rid of this bumbling imbecile..

It may have been tempting but Bush refrained from thowing Snarlin' Arlen Specter off Air Force One this morning when the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee ignored protocol and launched into a withering attack on the presidential crony right on Bush's own plane.

John D. McKinnon of the Wall Street Journal, the pool reporter for the president’s trip today, reports that the senator visited the press cabin before takeoff to hold court with reporters.

The senator from Pennsylvania let it rip.

According to Mr. McKinnon’s pool report, Mr. Specter said he didn’t think the White House wanted a court fight over executive privilege because “they don’t want to test it.”

And, writes McKinnon: “Specter was highly critical of Gonzales, but saw no indication of any change in Gonzales’s status. He attributed that to ‘personal loyalty’ on POTUS’s part. ‘Our hearing two days ago was devastating,’ he said. ‘But so was the hearing before that, and so was the hearing before that.’’’

The White House press office reports that Mr. Specter was, however, not dis-invited from the return trip to Washington.