Alberto Gonzalez is a Liar

I've been thinking lately about Alberto Gonzales. It's hard to imagine that John Ashcroft's successor could have been any worse than he was, but Gonzales is. Much worse.

A month ago, Gonzales told this lie:

"I would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney position for political reasons or if it would in any way jeopardize an ongoing serious investigation. I just would not do it.

Last week, Gonzales told another lie, saying he:

"was not involved in any discussions about what was going on" in the firings of eight prosecutors.

Documents released yesterday show that Gonzales "approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in an hourlong meeting last fall."

I'll give him one thing, though -- Alberto Gonzales follows orders, even if it means being a goddamned liar. Josh Marshall writes:

When Alberto Gonzales went up to the Hill earlier this year and answered questions about the US Attorney firings, he lied about why they'd been fired. When evidence revealed that what he had told the Senate was not true, he told the country in his televised press conference that he hadn't been directly involved in the process and thus had not knowingly misled the Senate. Friday's document dump showed that that too was a lie. These of course are only the most conspicuous examples and I leave aside the numerous instances of his aides lying on his behalf.

It is not too much to say that everything that has come out of Alberto Gonzales' mouth on this issue has been a lie. Sure, that sounds like hyperbole. But it's just a factual summary of what the public record now shows. On the very day his second lie was being exposed Gonzales was publicly claiming "it’s reckless and irresponsible to allege that these decisions were based in any way on improper motives."

And the president is fine with all of this. Fine with the fact that the Attorney General has not only repeatedly lied to the public but has also been exposed as repeatedly lying to the public. He's fine with at least two US Attorneys being fired for not giving in to pressure to file bogus charges to help Republican candidates.



Of course he's fine with it. Because it comes from him. None of this is about Alberto Gonzales. This is about the president and the White House, which is where this entire plan was hatched. Gonzales was just following orders, executing the president's plans. This is about this president and this White House, which ... let's be honest, everyone on both sides of the aisle already knows.

Yep, Alberto Gonzales is a liar, alright. Don't believe a word he says from now on. Not that you ever did anyway.

Republican Sen. Hagel:
"You can impeach him."

You know things are going badly for President Bush when a prominent member of his own party suggests that impeachment might be necessary.

GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent critic of the war, stopped short of calling for Bush's impeachment. But he made clear that some lawmakers viewed that as an option should Bush choose to push ahead despite public sentiment against the war.

"Any president who says, I don't care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don't care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed — if a president really believes that, then there are — what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that," said Hagel, who is considering a 2008 presidential run.

In the April edition of Esquire magazine, Hagel described Bush as someone who doesn't believe he's accountable to anyone. "He's not accountable anymore, which isn't totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don't know. It depends on how this goes," Hagel told the magazine.

"We have clearly a situation where the president has lost the confidence of the American people in his war effort," Hagel said. "It is now time, going into the fifth year of that effort, for the Congress to step forward and be part of setting some boundaries and some conditions as to our involvement."

"This is not a monarchy," he added, referring to the possibility that some lawmakers may seek impeachment. "There are ways to deal with it. And I would hope the president understands that."

Colbert Dares Dems To Impeach Bush

I haven't watched the Colbert Report in weeks, but this bit from Wednesday's show echoes what I wrote yesterday. (Although I wasn't very funny, was I?)

Watch Colbert's video for yourself -- the transcript doesn't do him justice.

If you guys really want to fight, then why don’t you buckle on your balls like men and impeach the President! I mean, uh, [laughter, applause] … yeah, hey, listen to that. I mean the Republicans impeached Bill Clinton. Don’t you want to get back at them for that? [laughter] I mean, wouldn’t that feel good? [laughter]

You could make President Bush just as unpopular as President Clinton was. Go ahead, impeach him. Impeach him twice. [laughter] After all, the President has been baiting you guys for six years … WMDs, Iraq, Katrina, Valerie Plame, signing statements, torture, wiretaps, secret prisons, US attorneys. [laughter]

I think what the President is saying is if you don’t impeach him now, you guys are a bunch of pussies. [laughter] Well are ya? Are you a bunch of pussies?

On a related note, since I posted three months ago that the Impeach Bush meme was picking up steam in the media, the number of hits on Google News has nearly doubled, from 689 to 1298. Now that Colbert is on the bandwagon, watch this number get even larger.

Happy 4th Birthday, TestPattern.org!

Today mark's the fourth anniversary of the site, so I'd like to send a present to one of my loyal readers. For a chance at winning a TestPattern.org mug, just send an email to feedback@testpattern.org, along with your name and how you found the site. I'll pick one (or two) winners out of the first ten entries I receive.

I started this site four years ago with a simple idea: to speak out. The United States had been attacked by terrorists 15 months earlier, and it had become increasingly clear to me that President Bush did not respect the rule of law, or democracy as we know it, and would use the events of 9-11 as an excuse to run roughshod over our government; bending Congress, the media and the American people to submit to his agenda of war, tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, privatization, etc.

What I could not anticipate four years ago was how far Bush would go, or how much the Democratic Party and American voters would let him get away with.

Despite an agenda that included lying about tax cuts for the rich, lying to invade Iraq, lying about environmental policy and global warming, lying about detention and torture and the suspension of habeas corpus, lying about propaganda, lying about the air quality of New York City after 9-11 ... lying about goddamned everything, Bush-Cheney were elected to a second term.

Despite the fact that Bush's war has cost us hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives, despite the fact that his administration ignored the suffering in New Orleans after Katrina just a year after making heroic efforts in Florida when multiple hurricanes hit there, despite the fact that Bush illegally eavesdropped on American citizens ... the list of crimes is as long as the number of days that have passed since Bush took office. Despite all this and much more, many Americans were unaware, or uninterested.

As someone with a critical eye for the news, and the ability to publish a website, however modest, I felt it was my right and responsibility to speak out. I invited my friends to contribute, and they did.

And gradually, although not quickly enough for my taste, things have changed. Millions of people like us have stood up, spoken their minds, emailed their friends, wrote their local newspapers, called radio shows, investigated wrongdoing, created blogs and got the truth out.

I tip my hat to you for reading and for staying involved. May the truth prevail.

Welcome, Ann Coulter fans!

I'm not going to join the Ann Coulter fan club to find out who it is, but someone in the cult has linked to this site in their chat room.

I'm flattered guys, really.

I considered joining for about 10 seconds, until I read the Forum Rules:

New applicants for membership: due to the large volume of membership requests we receive, we require an ISP-based (internet service provider) e-mail address for approval, to help reduce the strain of superfluous accounts. Registrations with free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.) will be deleted. Thank you for your cooperation.

-Ann Coulter is our hostess. You may agree or disagree with her positions, but any disrespect towards Ann will be grounds for immediate removal.

-All debate must be honest and fair.

-Obscene, profane, vulgar, or threatening posts will not be tolerated.

If Ann Coulter had to abide by these rules herself, she would be looking for work as a cocktail waitress instead of spreading hate professionally.