September 14, 2007 08:11 AM
So long, Fredo
Alberto Gonzales, arguably the worst Attorney General in U.S. history, is signed off yesterday after a scandal-plagued three years.
As it turns out, we’re ready to see him go, and Gonzales is ready to walk away.
After nine months of noisy controversy over his troubled tenure, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales is leaving office quietly today with a low-key farewell address to Justice Department employees in Washington.
“This is a quiet ending to a sad chapter at the Department of Justice,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who was the first lawmaker to call for Gonzales’s resignation earlier this year.
That’s true, but his departure is an uplifting coda, isn’t it?
Think Progress has video of loyal Bushies wishing Fredo farewell...
It is a measure of how sick we are that Gonzo will probably now join an establishment Houston law firm and make $1 million a year, when his real talents are more appropriate to a traffic court.
I couldn't even look at his farwell video. I'm so sick of this man. He and Bush and Rove have gutted the Justice Deparrtment and they are damn proud of it. My one wish is that this ass will be indicted after the 2008 elections so he won't be pardoned by a democratic president.
Don't the the door hit you in the ass!
DED
Just like George Bush, he's a national disgrace. Bush is now out there doing all these smiling photo ops with the troops. We had several in our paper today. It's disgusting.
When this administation ends and the (tell all) chorous of the "loyal Bushies" begin, we will all need large ear muffs...God help us all.
Wait ... the president said that Gonzales is a good man who was the victim of a partisan media and political witch hunt. I don't think you're being quite fair. Regardless of your politics, you would have to agree: Our president wouldn't say it if it wasn't true ... would he? I mean, I know some presidents have lied. But this president is a Christian. So I can't imagine that he'd be anything but truthful.
So I think we should all extend a hand of empathy to a man who is losing his job.
HEY WAIT A MINUTE!!!
Sorry about all that crap above. It looks like Gonzo himself still has all the hack codes to my computer. He was typing that himself. Fucking sneaky little bastard. Truth is, anyone who can make Ashcroft actually look like a man of character has to be incomprehensibly dirty.
Fuck you, Gonzales. Fuck you and the leather S&M saddle that George W. Bush rides you with.
Think Progress has video of loyal Bushies wishing Fredo farewell…
Root canal would be more pleasant.
Mussolini defined fascism as "anti-individualistic, the fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only insofar as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal will of man as a historic entity.... The fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value.... Fascism is therefore opposed to that form of democracy which equates a nation to the majority, lowering it to the level of the largest number.... We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the nineteenth century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State."
Gonzales represented the Bush administration's "rule of state over rule of law" governance. He enabled the illegitimate "L'État, c'est moi" (I am the State) policies under the name of the "Unitary Executive" theory. From perjury, to illegal spying, to delegitimizing the Justice Department to rigging the election system, his "achievements" have vaulted him beyond John Mitchell as the worst Attorney General in our nation's history.
Bye bye Gonzo...the constitution will not miss you at all butthead.
Sad that this man maintained his loyalty to Bush vs. the country and the constitution. That is the story in a nutshell!
Also sad that apparently he did not recognize he was only being used by Bush/Cheney/Rove for their own personal twisted agendas...
He's only "arguably" the worst because Gonzo himself would disagree -- but he can't remember why.
You lost me at arguably. Worst word ever. Fredo was a horrible AG. Maybe the worst ever.
Why isn't anyone talking about Krugman's Friday column in the NYTimes about Hunt Oil signing a separate oil development deal with the Kurds, undermining the Oil Revenue Sharing Agreement that Prime Ministeral-Maliki was trying to get through the Council of Representatives?
Krugman writes "Kurdistan, defying the central government, passed its own oil law; last week a Kurdish Web site announced that the provincial government had signed a production-sharing deal with the Hunt Oil Company of Dallas, and that seems to have been the last straw."
"Now here’s the thing: Ray L. Hunt, the chief executive and president of Hunt Oil, is a close political ally of Mr. Bush. More than that, Mr. Hunt is a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a key oversight body."
"...what’s interesting about this deal is the fact that Mr. Hunt, thanks to his policy position, is presumably as well-informed about the actual state of affairs in Iraq as anyone in the business world can be. By putting his money into a deal with the Kurds, despite Baghdad’s disapproval, he’s essentially betting that the Iraqi government — which hasn’t met a single one of the major benchmarks Mr. Bush laid out in January — won’t get its act together. Indeed, he’s effectively betting against the survival of Iraq as a nation in any meaningful sense of the term."
Any guesses whether or not this "insider trading" gets a review by the Justice Department?
Oil, it's all about oil.
Abu...one of a long line of war criminals who should be tried and convicted at the Hague.
Let the face of this toadying little pig be forever associated with two of America's greatest shames, Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. I wish him, like his fascist bosses, all the ill in the world.
So ... would someone with a better memory (or more scholarly) than me think of a worse US Attorney General? Ed Meese was actually less corrupt than Abu Gonzo. Hmmm ...
bob h @ 1:
His real talents are more appropriate to shoveling shit for $.15 an hour in a federal prison.
Even after contradicting himself and saying "I dunno" every other sentence, this is still my favorite Gonzo quote:
"President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale." :lol:
Fredo did a poor job? For whom? Lazy, money soaked, yellow bastard coward Democrats.
And as for the worst fucking AG in history look no further than Janet Reno.
For Republicans, Gonzales was a godsend. A conscientious soldier and GWB beard tasked to ramrod the Cheney agenda straight down America's collective gullet and he made a fantastic job of it. What is amazing is that the 'Architect of Gitmo' was able to drive the agenda home for so long (far more than the 3 years he was AG) and the Democrats sat back to take a daily brutal blowjob from his well oiled cock.
It will take years to undo the damage of Gonzo. If anyone here thinks that Democrats will kill Executive Order 13233 or disband the now well established USA PATRIOT Act then you're on crack.
Gonzales did everything he was asked to do. Now it is time for him to reap the rewards of the private sector.
Is there anybody, anybody at all in this bush administration, that has distinguished themself as a true American? Who puts the welfare of this country above their party. Who would do the really "right" thing when it came to country first.
they are going ahead with the political prosecutions in NJ. that US Atty was cited here for his work against menendez during the 2006 election cycle. but he's moving ahead with his assaults. and what do you know, there's an election cycle just starting up.
As Sheriff Margie said in Fargo:
"I just think I'm gonna barf".
Sharkbabe @ 14:
A pleasant thought. Here's a great picture of Abu and his master showing the luv.
I can only hope that one or both ends up in The Hague.
Maintaining that Gonzalez is "the worst Attorney General in U.S. history" would be hard to defend. John Newton Mitchell, Nixon's Attorney General, was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury and did 19 months in federal prison as a result. Harry Micajah Daugherty, Attorney General during the Harding Administration, is a strong candidate for the number two slot.
Now that he and Rove are gone, the coward Democrats (Sen. Leahy, etc.) can back off the chase, and they will go on to their lucrative Rethug jobs. But I live in VT, and will remember if Leahy followed through on the effort to bring him to justice, or not, with my vote.
so many cronies so little time
Doesn't mean much to me. Do we really think we are seeing the downfall of a brilliant Dr. Evil? They'll find another yes-man to do what they want.
What _really_ pains me is that my Blue Dog Democrat of a senator voted to let ANY attorney general decide on his discretion with no oversight what is or is not a reasonable search. That is where the _lasting_ abuse of my constitutional rights was laid down into law. By my Democratic Senator, not Gonzo.
That farewell ceremony almost made me throw up in my mouth. Where do they find these crackheads that applauded him for his performance? When they talk about the beltway being insulated from the rest of America, boy they really aren't kidding. When you have one of the biggest sham criminal attorney generals in United States history, with even criminal congress agreeing that his criminality is just too damn transparent even for them, and then to throw this guy a big farewell bash was probably the ultimate act of Irony. Tis ok, Nature is well on it's way to recoil some of the damage that has been done. So long gonzo, enjoy your liberty while it lasts. For all the damage that you did you will suffer much much more in the end.
I hope it's not the last we've seen of old Gonzo...he still has a lot of splainin' to do for his roll in helping to steal elections, helping to ensure the torture of prisoners why have captured and in doing so gave 24 a reason to be on the air. So, I'm hoping for more hearings, and maybe even a conviction of this asshole.
Good riddance, asshole. Hope to see you in jail.
Hey Gonzo. Don't let that door hit your a## on the way out.....
"Alberto Gonzales, arguably the worst Attorney General in U.S. history..."
Arguably?
Gonzo - "Over the past two and a half years, I have seen tyranny, dishonesty, corruption and depravity of types I never thought possible,"
Actually is has been 6 /1/2 years.
Shouldn't this "quiet end", as Schumer calls it, include jail time?
Have the Dems just given up? What was the purpose of all those hearings?
that video at thinkprogress is funny.
what a bunch of sanctimonious idiots.
i mean really... how are these people in charge of anything?
the bs is is piled so high.
gonzo saved the children?????
he didn't do shit.
Albert VO-5's parting speech contained the following nugget: "Every time I see a glimmer of the evil man can do, I see the defenders of liberty, truth and justice who stand ready to fight it." Yes, Alberto, but you were not one of them. You were not one of those defenders of liberty, truth, and justice. Far from it. Referring to the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" and obsolete, you sanctioned torture of detainees at Gitmo and denied them the justice of quick access to counsel and speedy trial in a court of law. You thumbed your nose at the rule of law, the very principle that earned this nation international respect for over 200 years, made us the model of liberty the world over. Believing that loyalty to your President (and former client), you put that allegiance ahead of the responsibilities of your office, trampling on the separation of powers doctrine such that the Justice Department and the Executive branch were indistinguishable. You participated in the dismantling of habeas corpus and other Constitutional guarantees of the liberty of which you speak. You did a hatchet job on U. S. Attorneys who were not willing to go on witch hunts for your boss and his party, then attempted to justify your actions by reference to the president's predecessor's wholesale removal of his yes-men at Justice. You lied repeatedly to Congress -- under oath -- as if swearing to God had justifiable exceptions -- putting you and your boss's devious means to the service of your own evil ends. You, Alberto (VO-5) are a disgrace to the legal profession. One might hope that you will be treated as a pariah in legal circles, though it would be naive to think the Bush Bunch won't keep you on payroll once that village idiot returns to Crawford. Somewhere in Texas, Alberto, there is a female mongrel dog looking for its offspring. Tell her, "Mom, I'm coming home!" Goodbye, and be damned!
Subject: USDOJ Comments
Date: March 18, 2007 9:34:10 PM EST
To: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Dear Mr Gonzales,
It appears that you are about to be removed from office in shame. I feel sorry for you; I'm sure this event will be a terrible blow to you, your family, and the Latino community at large. So many were so proud that a Mexican American had made it to such high office. Now you have let everyone down in the most un-American way. We do not believe in torture in this country; we do not believe in illegal spying on our fellow citizens; we do not believe that our chief law enforcement officer should lie to congress or to the American people. We do believe in the rule of law.
Our nation stands on the rule of law. Our constitution is supreme and inviolable. You have obviously disregarded your oath to uphold and defend it. The consequences for you criminal behavior will be severe. Your career is ruined and you have brought shame on all those close to you. Your name will be among the ignoble few who have been removed from this proud office.
May God have mercy on your soul.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!
next comes his really crappy memoirs, "my pet goat - the white house years"
¡adios "alfredo"!
He may be gone from DC, but I doubt he'll be gone from the inner circle of influence with Dubya. He and Rove and Rummy, etc. all have telephones and computers and probably secure satellite TV hook-ups with Bush/Cheney et al. It'll be just as if he was there with his bud in the White House - he'll even be able to gaze into his baby blues.
His departure is "an uplifting coda?" Not really, because Gonzales departed for political reasons, not legal ones. He turned a supposedly non-political office (as the people's lawyer) into a partisan bucket shop, using tortured ex post facto logic to justify illegal conduct on the part of his bosses. He worked for Bush, not for the country, even though his salary was paid with taxpayer dollars.
If Bush and Cheney had learned their lesson, and promised to appoint someone who knew the law and placed it above political considerations, Gonzales' leaving would be uplifting. But Bush will simply send another Gonzales (if not someone so lacking in legal scholarship), and if he isn't confirmed Bush will claim it's for political reasons. Nothing has really changed.
If our US Congress had the willpower they could get Fred on lying to Congress. I got this from findlaw.com
United States Code
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 47 - FRAUD AND FALSE STATEMENTS
U.S. Code as of: 01/19/04
Section 1001. Statements or entries generally
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any
matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or
judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly
and willfully -
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or
device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent
statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the
same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent
statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5
years, or both.
It speaks for itself.
And that includes John Mitchell and Ed Meese!
This will not be a good thing until we are able to restore the Rights and Laws that Gonzales trashed.
Good Riddance, but there is much to be done.
This Administration has, in six years, done so much damage that it may take a decade or more to restore.
At this point in time America is no longer the "Friendly Giant", we're more of a menacing arrogant bully.
The fear that bush has spread in this country to the ignorant flock will remain with the ignorant. It is up to us and the next leaders of the country to stamp out ignorance.
We're not finished with Gonzo yet. Not until he is prosecuted.
"Arguably the worst?"
There's not even a close second. Al Capone or Charles Manson would have been better picks for AG.
For these departing assclowns we need a new ritual - the "Swearing Out" ceremony.
"Damn you, Gonzales! Get the f*** out of the District of Columbia and don't come back!!!"
Cono tu madre, bandejo! Mal suerte para tu!
"Over the past two and a half years, I have seen tyranny, dishonesty, corruption and depravity of types I never thought possible," Gonzales said in prepared remarks at a Hispanic Heritage Month ceremony at Bolling Air Force Base. "I've seen things I didn't know man was capable of.
I'll bet he has.
"But I will tell you here and now that these things still leave me hopeful," he said. "Because every time I see a glimmer of the evil man can do, I see the defenders of liberty, truth and justice who stand ready to fight it."
Yes, they do. Please, close the door on your way out, Fredo.
If the door didn't slap him in the ass on the way out, I'm hoping that not too far down the road the US Constitution will.
Let the hearings continue.
its nice to see this little piece of shit out there in public WITHOUT his security detail. he deserves the same treatment that the "enemies of the state" do. no rights, a dog collar and a nice beating once a day just to get the blood pumping. his children deserve better than this little republican monkey for a father. i hope and pray that somebody rights this wrong the only acceptable way.
As he walked away there was a piece of toilet paper stuck to his shoe.
Oh, wait--that was the US Constitution.
Blue Buddha @ 17:
Aah yes, Gonzo's grasp of American history is spellbinding. Who can forget President Washington's legendary "Electrified Homeland' surveillance program.
Ben Franklin's ingenious electric "spy kites" would hover over our major metropolitan cities, and whenever it received seditious muttering, (via it's taut, whetted cotton envelope acting as a microphone) it would send down an alerting jolt to the agent below, melting a key on his belt specific to the offense....that is, as long as there was plenty of available lighting.
It's simply amazing how resourceful a young nation can be when terrified by some arrogant jerk in a cave 10,000 miles away.
Lost a lot of good agents in those days for some reason. Proud times.
Good luck in prison, Asshole.
Fredo, as small in character as in stature. No spinning out of that legacy.
He's a putrid, bespectacled shit-bag, a colostomy of joyful supplication and sycophantasmagoria for the worst, most shamelessly unmotivated and incurious man to E-v-e-r sit in the big chair in the Oval Office - at least unless (or until) Right sled Fred gets the nod. I particularly hated his constant invocation of his dead parents, as if his frequently reminding people that he came from Mexican immigrants somehow justified his gleeful shredding of the Constitution- as well as several strains of well-set-and-cured case authority. Fuck Gonzo. He should be disbarred, imprisoned, and then assigned to a never-ending position as the second level Management trainee for a rental car company in the Municipal winner of the "Biggest Armpit in Texas" Contest - even if it takes years to concoct a formula to break the 9 way tie for the Contest title. Unitl then, he should rot on a quaint waterboard in Guantanamo.
I wish for him all the evils he has enabled others to do. You know; a little torture, a little humiliation, a little prison time w/o benefit of charges or legal assistance, a little invasion of privacy, and termination of employment because he is not a good american.
A little power is dangerous in a small mind. But alot of power in a pea-brain is deadly.
Don't let the door bang your butt on the way out
That's Mark Foley's job.
John Ashcroft wasn't much better. He may've tried to prevent some of the more egregious powers grabs, however, he was asleep at the switch during the lead up to 9-11.
Thanks for the video Think Progress. Wow. Those people have their noses so far up Gonzales's ass I'm surprised they can breathe. I used to work with some people like that. They made me ill, and they were (probably still are) despicable human beings. (I got down-sized out of North American corporate hell, and moved to Asia-- good on me!!)
jimbo92107 @ 51:
Was Larry Craig trying to pick it up?
As the old saying goes, good riddance to bad rubbish.
I am not satisfied. He should have left that job in handcuffs on his way to a very long sentence in the Fort Leavenworth penitentiary
The Best AG ever.
The man will go down in history as a true American Hero
Good one Mark.
Pass that joint this way.
isnt it amazing how OJ was bigger news then this
You can rearrange the letters in his name like this:
GONZALES = SLEAZGON
What, no Medal of Freedom. Ya did a heckuva job Gonzo (for a Fascist).
To paraphrase a couple of vids making the rounds from YouTube to the blogospherical websites: "Why don't you leave Alberto alone?! (Whimper, simper) Boo hoo, poor Alberto, pulled himself up by the bootstraps from humble beginnings in the Rio Grande Valley colonias...boo hoo...Why don't you leave him alone?! He was trying to keep us all safe from terrorists, tapping into every American's phone line, why don't you leave him alone!!!! You should all be ashamed of yourselves, you traitors, you cowards, you commie filth, why don't you leave him ALONE?!!! Boo, hoo, simper, sniff. He only did his job, made sure the Guantanamo detainees were questioned about their al Qaeda links, why don't you LEAVE Alberto ALONE?!? Boo hoo...He was a fine man, a patriot, loyal to his country and to his president, WHY DON'T YOU LEAVE ALBERTO A-L-O-N-E?!!!???!!! &c...............................................(for about five minutes)
May i just say, I can't stand that little twerp. What a total twerp!
Just remember, Gonzo hired a huge number of the Goodlings from Regent that he specialized in putting there, and a number of them will be there for a long time. So we'll be dealing with the leavings of this idiot for a while yet.
The Democrans will now officially forget anything bad ever happened, and Gonzo will go on to make huge sums of money with no punishment for anything he ever did.
Yay.
Make sure you clean up after your mess........jerk
KATHLEEN CARD: Would you go to the Lord in prayer with me? Eternal God, we come to you from many faith traditions…and we are especially thankful for your humble servant, Alberto Gonzales.
WTF?!? Why are mentally incompetent and psychologically ill people like this allowed to serve in our government? This whole thing just goes to prove that AG is too important a job to let the president appoint. The position should be electable with the term of service being 2 years. Way too much damage has been done by this piece of human excrement to let GW have another shot at appointing another repug traitor.
Comments are closed on this entry