THIS NOTE ON ATTORNEY GENERAL-NEXT AL GONZALEZ in from Chris Nelson, who writes the action-packed Nelson Report:
. . .the very first new nomination in the Second Bush Administration seems carefully calculated to send a message to everyone…we won, we can do anything we want.
Or, is it a simple matter of that famous Bush family loyalty? Answer is…probably a bit of both.
No matter what the White House’s true intent, however, nominating the author of the “torture memo” as Attorney General, a former ENRON attorney, to boot, really confronts the Senate with a horrible set of calculations.
Many Republicans, not just “moderates”, were shocked, embarrassed and angered by Gonzales’s memo, feeling it helped set in motion the international debacle that was Abu Grahib, et al. So now they have to defend the author?
For Judiciary Committee chair-in-waiting Arlen Specter, a republican moderate hanging on to his ambitions by a finger nail, this means he has to promise to cooperate on the nomination if he wants to be confirmed as Chairman.
For Democrats…remember them? They lost the Senate election Tuesday, big time. Do they throw themselves on the fire to stop this very first nomination? What if they fail? Isn’t protecting the Supreme Court more important? The temptation to use Gonzales to rake-up ENRON plus torture may simply be irresistible.
Bottom line seems clear…Bush can divide and conquer, and Dems have to fear it signals the President has absolutely no intention to be bipartisan, or moderate in anything…so there!
The Center for American Progress has an extensive memo on our new Gonzalez Problem.
America: Fuck Yeah!
— Steve Clemons
