{"id":2173,"date":"2007-04-15T01:33:26","date_gmt":"2007-04-15T05:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/gonzos_damage_c\/"},"modified":"2007-04-15T01:33:26","modified_gmt":"2007-04-15T05:33:26","slug":"gonzos_damage_c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2007\/04\/gonzos_damage_c\/","title":{"rendered":"Gonzo’s Damage Control: Still No Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In advance of his congressional testimony this week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has opinion piece<\/a> in today’s Washington Post<\/em>.
\nIn short, Gonzales says, “I’m sorry you’ve been so confused about what the Department of Justice did”:<\/p>\n

What began as a well-intentioned management effort to identify where, among the 93 U.S. attorneys, changes in leadership might benefit the department, and therefore the American people, has become an unintended public controversy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What Gonzales fails to say, and what has never<\/em> been satisfactorily explained, is how the firing of these eight U.S. attorneys benefited the Justice Department.
\nWhat we do know, or rather all Gonzales thinks we should know, is that the dismissals were not “improper”:<\/p>\n

I know that I did not — and would not — ask for the resignation of any U.S. attorney for an improper reason. Furthermore, I have no basis to believe that anyone involved in this process sought the removal of a U.S. attorney for an improper reason.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a unsurprising non-admission.
\nEven you accept what the Bush administration says at face value–that the attorneys were not fired for political reasons–there’s no real way to get around the big “C” word. You know, the issue that’s plagued the administration since day one: competence<\/em>.
\nGonzales offers his own indictment:<\/p>\n

During those conversations, to my knowledge, I did not make decisions about who should or should not be asked to resign.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eight U.S. attorneys were fired, and Gonzales can’t remember if he made that decision? Is anyone running the Justice Department? If so, who?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In advance of his congressional testimony this week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has opinion piece in today’s Washington Post. In short, Gonzales says, “I’m sorry you’ve been so confused about what the Department of Justice did”: What began as a well-intentioned management effort to identify where, among the 93 U.S. attorneys, changes in leadership might […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}