Too bad, they should have let it through and created more tension between the senate and WH. That would have buried that amnesty travesty a little further. Would serve the WH right for collaborating with the democrats against their own base.

I question the timing.

I think the Dems blew their wad 2 years too soon by winning back control of congress. 2 years is a long time for them to run against Bush. The problem for them is that Bush isn't on any more ballots. The Republican candidates rarely talk about him, because they have no close personal ties to him, and are trying to establish themselves with voters. If the Dems want to keep pulling stunts like this, I say bring it on. The American people despise congress for a reason.

"I say bring it on."

I swear I've heard that somewhere before...

I'm glad Abu Gonzalez is staying. The worst president in recent history and the worst AG in recent history, two peas in a pod.

Sig, unfortunately for you the majority do not agree.

Well, one can only hope that the House will take up the matter, realizing that the House doesn't have some stupid you-got-to-get-to-60% rule.

Too bad the Republicans don't want to hold people accountable for their wrongdoings.

I think that Congress should be subjected to a no-confidence vote. They are totally out of touch with the average American voter.

Term limits. Two and done.

I dont understand how this could happen -

The results of the midterm elections clearly suggested a mandate against the Gonzales.

C'mon guys... put down your Republican partisanship for a minute. The man has obviously corrupted the Justice Department. I know you guys revere President Reagan, but channeling his Alzheimer's with 70 " I can't recall " statements is a little much.

I assure you the winner of the "I don't recall" contest is hands down the next democrat presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.

That's a lot of hate you have their Ryan. Why don't you go do something with it instead of letting it blind you.

Ryan ~ And YET, Hillary Clinton told a federal grand jury investigating her Rose Law Firm dealings "I can't recall" 147 times, and she is the Democratic frontrunner.

Maybe Gonzo needed to forget MORE stuff, eh?

Just how completely idiotic is it to even seek a "vote of no confidence" in a Cabinet officer who has already been confirmed, anyway? This isn't a parliamentary system, Senator Reid (D-Vegas Mob), it's another form of government entirely - one which does NOT have "no confidence" votes.

No wonder the moron's favorability rating is down to 19%, as noted over at Politics. What's Reid trying to do - make Bush look popular?

Let's put Reid and Bush in a popularity cage match, winner takes all. LOL, and the winner still wouldn't get to 50% popularity.

We all really deserve better than the people in charge of this federal government. Perhaps we need to add a ballot box option that says none, and if it wins, no one goes.

The Bush White House would be better served to rid itself of a few unpopular boat anchorlike drags, but instead hung on to both Rumsfeld and Gonzales until most of their public support had long since drained away. Loyalty to your friends can come at a high price if your friends are no darn good.

Janet Reno seemed to stay past her usefulness to Clinton, Paul.

Sometimes, Presidents do not like to be pushed.

I don't see the big deal on Gonzales. The only thing he has did wrong is refuse to prosecute the traitors in congress, 100% democrats. Do the democrats really want him to start doing his job? Sometime you get what you wish for and it really isn't what you want. Firing worthless attorneys is what anyone should do. I'm still waiting for all of the democrat presidential hopefuls to state for a fact 'I will not fire or replace anyone' hired or appointed by President Bush. Don't get me wrong, I don't like Gonzales because he does not do what an attorney general is supposed to do, indict and jail those (all democrats) leaking national security information to the NYSlimes on a daily basis. As for congress, they just wasted another day and millions of dollars of taxpayer money. Nothing new for the great ethical leadership of today. They are doing anything productive anyway.

Scrapiron, are you serious?

You really don't see a problem with someone who is either telling baldfaced lies to Congress, or has no idea what's going in the department that he is running?

Schumer ran the DoJ until February and since then it has been Gonzales and Bush. Read Roger Aranoff in 'Accuracy in Media' about Plame/Libby. Hubris, McNulty's lies about Gonzales, have brought them down.
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Said by a person who has never managed two people let alone a huge federal bureaucracy. Note, fat chair trapped Monday morning quarterbacks need not apply.

Jim, Schumer really wanted McNulty to take Gonzales's place. Goodling detailing McNulty's lies in February broke that plan and showed just how the administration caught on to Schumer.

Believe it or not, the Department of Justice is supposed to be under administration control, not direction from the legislative branch to a corrupt bureaucracy. It's the will of the people. The founding fathers made it that way on purpose. Besides, how is the Executive to carry out his oath to enforce the laws if he does not have effective control of the Department of Justice?

This is Constitution 101, boys and girls.
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Can anybody list the Republicans who voted 'no confidence'. These are the Republicans in whom I have no confidence. The last few months have seen a completely unreported struggle to finally bring the Department of Justice under White House control. With Comey as Ashcroft's assistant, and McNulty as Gonzales's assistant, the department has been run under Schumer's direction until the US Attorney blow-up, at which the later revelation of McNulty's perjury demonstrated the manner in which the knife was placed in the back of Bush's AG's.

Look at the Midnight Hospital Run of much derision. Had Comey not dallied at letting the administration know he wasn't going to approve continuation of the NSA program, the emergency would not have been necessary. And now they bring that up to make Gonzales look bad? When the truth is the opposite?

You'll read about this in the history books, but not contemporary newspapers.
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If the Dems are scratching their heads wondering why the polls have them losing the confidence of the electorate, it's this little stunt.

The 'no confidence' ploy was a pure political stunt. It does not exist in the Constitution and there is no enforcement mechanism in any Federal law or regulation.

When we have far more important things to be considered, and which the Dems promised to solve in their first 100 hours (Which now going by their brief history of being in charge, it looks like 100 WEEKS instead.), no wonder people are disgusted with how Dirty Harry and Botox Nancy are running things into the ground with these useless antics.

Sig, you said the AG is the worst in recent history? Let's compare:

Gonzalas: Let go three USA's that are political appointments with no confirmation needed by congreess.

Reno: Personally responsible for the killing of women and children in Waco, Ruby Ridge killing, Elian Gonzalas having assault rifles pointed at him in a closet and the shutting down of the Oklahoma bombing investigation. Oh, she also had direct oversight and approval of Ken Starrs investigation.

Wow, are you correct? No. I am no fan of Gonzalas, but this whole thing is petty. Typical dimmer crap. ww

Ryan, Gonzales was clay in the hands of the partisan careerists at Justice, who had more loyalty to Schumer than to any transient administration. The founders did not envision a DoJ not subject to executive control.

This is big stuff, completely running under the radar of the press.
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It is not easy to explain, Ryan, but look at the way McNulty's lies in February, as detailed by Goodling, set up Gonzales to say things in error. The press is still lackadaisically pushing for the Justice coup that was finally stopped in February by Bush, but only because he caught on to the shenanigans of Schumer, and McNulty, and Comey. The energy from Schumer is gone, now, because he's been caught, and is afraid of being revealed. His boy, Fitz, is in gathering trouble, too, hoo, hoo.
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"Schumer ran the DoJ until February and since then it has been Gonzales and Bush." Paris' dumb sister, kim

kim, are you blonde? Your comments about your DoJ lunactic theory & Schumer make you look like the dumbest blonde ever, even surpassing your sister.

"You'll read about this in the history books" Paris' dumb sister, kim

Just waiting for the day when the men in white coats carry you off. Harpie, you are bat-shit nuts.

Get out from around the perineum, and look around. I'm not the only one wondering about Schumer. McNulty's testifying today; go watch.

Fitz has no response to the twelve professors amicus brief. Mitchell not testifying is raising more eyebrows. Fitz doesn't seem to think juries need to watch witnesses for their demeanor.

OB, instead of just bloviating profanely, do yourself a favor and get up to speed on this matter, or 'Mudcat' will tell you to go to hell. Who do you think you are helping with all your enraged filth? It certainly isn't you.
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You should go perfume your local blog, busher.
====================

I'm desperately waiting for a decent leftist's response to Cockburn in the Nation about global warming, and to Dershowitz, and Aranoff about Libby and Plame.

Comment from the sinestrosphere about these issues has plummeted since the weekend. Is there no one capable of thinking on their own; must all of you wait for talking points?

bD gets a pass; his hands are tied, but where are the rest of you?
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Hey JFO, how's hoping with Cockburn?
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Bush at his June 11 press conference: "And as to how Gonzales -- first of all, this process has been drug out a long time, which says to me it's political. There's no wrongdoing. You know, he -- they haven't said, here's -- you've done something wrong."
Well the reason that it has been drugout along time is because of Gonzales' stonewalling.(lying if you prefer). We still don't know why the 8 attorneys were fired or who made the decision to fire them (me thinks it was the White house/ that is Rove, solely for political partisan reasons) Just to refresh your memory kim some of the reasons why the Senate has no- cofidence in Alberto: include:
1. Lying Under Oath
2. Purging Prosecutors
3. Misusing the Patriot Act's National Security Letters
4. Authorizing Illegal NSA Domestic Surveillance
5. Enabling John Yoo and Unchecked Presidential War Powers
6. Rendering the Geneva Conventions "Quaint"
7. Supporting Military Commissions and the End of Habeas Corpus
8. Blessing Unprecedented Expansion of Presidential Signing Statements
9. Facilitating a CIA Leak Cover-Up
10. Gutting Minority Voting Rights

Steve, did you note at that press conference that Bush said there was an investigation in the Department of Justice into wrongdoing, and if any were found, it would be taken care of 'like you would like'. That sounded to me that Bush was confident he would find some, and that it would be taken care of in a manner that the reporter would NOT like politically, but would have to accept legally. And then he smirked at the reporter.

Your list is a pretty good shopping list of the disinformation pushed about Bush.

Now, tell me who sent Joe Wilson, and tell me what Waxman and Hayden have to say about 'covert' now? For instance, where is the CIA's legal opinion that Val was 'covert' for purposes of prosecution? Where is the CIA's referral of the Plame matter to the DoJ? Who sent Joe Wilson to Africa in 1999, and the other two times he went there before the so-called Cheney 'behesting'.
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1. McNulty set him up.
2. Purging? Come now.
3. You don't understand the Patriot Act.
4. NSA is legal.
5. The founders gave the legislature the power to declare war, and the executive the power to make war, for good reasons, which you should be able to imagine.
6. The Geneva Convention protects civilians and soldiers by distinguishing between them. Granted, it is quaint to believe in such protection universally and unilaterally. Those were quaint old white Europeans who wrote the Conventions; they had the power to abide by its gentlemen's agreement.
7. Hmm. Habeas corpus. At least the relevant corpi are alive.
8. Signing statements are useful administratively. Your child's sports uniform didn't used to come with liability disclaimers longer than the sleeves, either.
9. Addressed in the last comment. Armitage leaked, if only one leaker must be identified it was his disclosure that led to vast public knowledge of Val Plame; Andrea Mitchell and 'everyone' involved already 'knew' about her.
10. Insisting on voter identification only chills minority rights if minorities are not legitimately voting to begin with.
========================

On Cockburn,

Start here, then read this and this. Feel free to give it your usual ad hom based on misconceptions. I'm not coming back for debate. I'm retired from political blogs.

You've shown me good reason to have little confidence in the Senate. And where in the Constitution, or in Congressional tradition, are 'no confidence' votes of this fashion allowed or used?

This is more the feckless Harry Reid. Why doesn't he go set up some casinoes in Gaza or Damascus. He is the frothy scum that bubbles to the surface when there is a designated destination for national foolishness. You don't think smart political money would back such a sway backed nag, do you?
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kim, here is a time line :The Niger Uranium Deception and the 'Plame Affair'... I woud say the man most responsible for the Niger end is Michael Ledeen, neocon crusader, an apparently sophisticated man who writes elegant prose, who sums it up nicely: it requires that

"Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and even Saudi Arabia" be destabilized, and that "every last drooling anti-Semitic and anti-American mullah, imam, sheikh, and ayatollah is either singing the praises of the United States of America, or pumping gasoline, for a dime a gallon, on an American military base near the Arctic Circle."