Thursday, April 19, 2007
That was a pretty bad forecast. Ruben Navaratte, an editorial writer for CNN and San Diego Union-Tribune comes close in getting things very wrong soon enough for it to be mocked instantaneously.
Today Navarette strings a beauty together.
For some conservatives, principle lost out to practicality. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich recently said the firings had wrecked Gonzales' credibility and that the administration would be better served by "a new team at the Justice Department."
Perfect. Liberals have spent more than a month slinging mud at Gonzales, and now weak-kneed conservatives are giving in and saying that maybe the attorney general should go because: "Look, he's covered in mud!"
As it happens, some of that mud has come from the get-Gonzales faction of the Fourth Estate.
Recently, The Washington Post reported that Gonzales had "retreated from public view ... in an intensive effort to save his job, spending hours practicing testimony and phoning lawmakers for support in preparation for pivotal appearances in the Senate."
Time out. The Washington Post and the rest of the media have repeatedly insisted that Thursday's testimony is "make or break" for Gonzales. If so, why wouldn't he prepare for it?
Let me see here. Alberto Gonzales is doing a terrible job according to his critics. To respond to that criticism, he spent a month ignoring his work and preparing for his testimony, where he is just required to be truthful. He said 'I don't recall' 55 times this morning, even in cases where any reasonable person would have a recollection.
Navarette is one of the last remaining kool-aid drinkers left. To suggest that an attorney general needs a month to prepare for Patrick Leahy asking him 7 minutes worth of questions as a defense of Alberto Gonzales really isn't the great protective wall that Navarette seems to think. One of Navarette's final points buttresses his inanity.
Come again? One of the most common arguments you hear from Gonzales' critics is that he can't be effective on the job while this cloud hangs overhead. So shouldn't lifting the cloud be his No. 1 priority? And when he tries to do that, they blast him.
No, his job is to do his job. It's the attorney general. It's kind of important that the job is done. Alberto Gonzales serves the american people as the chief law enforcement officer. If Alberto needed another 5 months to prepared (which seems to be the case after today's session), should we wait for your buddy, and put the rest of the AG's work on hold until then?
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