Stonewall-a-thon 2007

Gonzo's testimony yesterday was just completely absurd. He is a liar and a toadie who cannot be remotely trusted. This man fills the highest law enforcement job in the nation, and he can't even be relied upon to tell the truth in front of Congress. That Bush won't fire his ass should tell us everything we need to know about the president and his corrupt administration—and should itself be grounds for impeachment. I quite honestly cannot believe we continue to allow this band of mendacious miscreants to run our country.

Here are some highlights, the first one care of Josh Marshall, who introduces it thusly:

In this exchange Sen. Schumer (D) asks Gonzales who sent him and Andy Card to John Ashcroft's bedside. And Gonzales just refuses to answer. He keep repeating that they went "on behalf" of the president. But he won't say if the president sent them. He just won't answer.

Schumer notes the key point: Gonzales isn't even asserting any kind of privilege. He doesn't say he can't remember. He just won't answer.

Take a look ...

Unfuckingbelievable.

Josh's colleagues over at TPMmuckraker, Spencer Ackerman and Paul Kiel, compiled more video, and note that Gonzales "left the Senate having raised two lingering and mutually exclusive questions: whether the Bush administration has pursued a second secret, internally controversial intelligence program of dubious legality; or whether the attorney general of the United States lied under oath." Here's how it all went down:

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are concerned about Gonzo's assertion last year that there had been no internal dissent at the Justice Department (since undermined by James Comey's testimony about this incident with former AG John Ashcroft) about the administration's Terrorist Surveillance Program, aka the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. So, as Jeff mentioned yesterday, in response to questions about his, uh, inconsistent testimony, Gonzales "repeatedly suggested there's a different intelligence program, other than the TSP, that Justice Department officials found legally dubious in 2004. If Gonzales is telling the truth, he just disclosed the existence of a previously unknown intelligence program. If not, the embattled attorney general could be in some serious legal jeopardy."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) battered Gonzales about the distinction between the TSP and the "other intelligence activities" Gonzales alleges existed. Schumer pointed out that in a June press conference, Gonzales confirmed that Comey was in fact talking about the "highly classified program which the president confirmed to the American people sometime ago" -- that is, the TSP. But Gonzales said at the hearing that shortly thereafter, he contacted Washington Post reporter Dan Eggen to retract the statement -- and then he stuck to his line about there being "other intelligence activities" that were at issue in March, 2004.

Then Arlen Specter (who is still a Republican, though you wouldn't know it if you were one of the dipshits who watches Fox News) went after Gonzo, bluntly telling him "I do not find your testimony credible."


And here's Feingold having a go at Gonzo:


Josh comments: "It's a genuinely sad day when you have the chief law enforcement officer of country remaining in office after he's been publicly and repeatedly shown to be a liar." To which I can only add, with a sigh, yeah.