As Sonny and Cher sang back in the 60's, "The beat goes on, the beat goes on, Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain La-de-da-de-de, la-de-da-de da"...but the beat may be grinding to a halt for the Bush Administration.
It is so unmistakably clear that Alberto Gonzales has repeatedly lied to Congress and the American people about what occurred with the U.S. attorney firings that now even some of the most loyal Bush sycophants are begrudgingly acknowledging the facts.
But what is blatantly clear is that this pattern of deceit, dishonesty and mendacity has been exhibited by the Bush Administration throughout it's six years in office. This is not an aberration in any way, shape or form, this has been the script for the Bush presidency and the actions of the Attorney General in this abuse of power case are par for the course with this Administration.
There is one thing and just one thing distinguishing this U.S. attorneys scandal from all of the other would-be scandals over the past six years and that is that the Democrats now have subpoena power and seem ready to wield it's power by forcing the administration to give public sworn testimony before committees and disclose actual evidence and documents, rather than simply issue their unscrutinized and non-investigated denials of wrongdoing to a rubber-stamp Republican Congress and that evidence offered demonstrates that the claims are true.
If you recall, in the past, this is how every scandal transpired, first questions about Administration conduct were raised, whereupon, present and past Administration officials would deny the wrongdoing. Then Karl Rove and Dick Cheney would start Administration officials selectively and voluntarily disclose exculpatory documents. Then they would appear before a milquetoast Congress, to assure everyone that prudent safeguards are in place, then deny any wrongdoing again, and lastly claim the conduct in question is used only for only proper purposes. More often than not they would foist national security and protecting the country against terrorism.
Then, according to script, the Administration followers led by the Republicans formerly controlling Congress; such as Senator Pat Roberts-R-Kansas and Senator Mitch McConnell-R-Kentucky; would insist that no investigation was warranted because the Bush Administration has made clear that there are safeguards in place protecting us and everything is being done for proper purposes. Congressional Republicans then would block any and all Congressional investigations, compel no disclosure of evidence, do nothing to investigate the claims against the Administration. And, finally the scandal ends, unresolved.
This has been the Administration's modus operandi and the same distinctive pattern has repeated itself over and over from when the Administration lost one of our most sophisticated spy planes to the Red Chinese Air Force before 9-11, to post 9-11 with controversies over secret and illegal surveillance programs spying on American citizens, to torture, black sites and rendition of prisoners of war which constitute war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the US Constitution.
Congressional Republicans have blocked all investigations during the Bush presidency, insisting that we can trust him and his Administration, and they have proceeded along, lying to Congress and the country with complete and utter impunity.
Getting back to the U.S. attorneys case, everything proceeded according to script, Alberto Gonzales did what he and other Bush officials have always done, issue false statements about what they did in order to conceal their wrongdoing and lie to everyone about what our Government is doing.
And had it not been for the forced disclosure of internal DOJ emails and other documents - something which never would have occurred prior to the November, 2006 election with the Republican majority - the same thing here would have happened: thusly, Alberto Gonzales and other top DOJ officials would have lied about what they did and why they did it and nobody would have been able to prove it either way.
The only thing that has changed is that there is now some minimal amount of oversight and already, thank goodness, within a mere three months, that oversight is finally being exercised by the Democrats and our country's Attorney General stands revealed as a serial liar in the politicization of the US Justice Department.
That is why our Founding Fathers felt that oversight was so critically important because they instinctively did not trust government and never trusted government officials to act properly when they can act in secret and with no checks. Oversight is fundamental to a functioning democracy.
So the November 2006 election has already proven that elections have consequences and the people have spoken, therefore I would encourage the Democratic-led Congress to continue to use their oversight powers to shine the light behind the curtain which has been the story of the Bush Administration.
Finally, I call upon President Bush to demand the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. If that is not forthcoming, Congress must use it's impeachment power to rid our country of this dishonest Attorney General.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Must Go..!
