As I write this, it looks like Alberto Gonzales won't be Attorney General much longer. In addition, there will be considerable pressure put on George W. Bush to fire his long-time friend and top political advisor Karl Rove. And it's all over some lies that these guys told over the perfectly legal, if politically unsavory, firing of seven federal attorneys.The problem is, these two people should never have been in power in the first place. What's worse, there are plenty of good reasons for getting rid of them, but those reasons didn't seem to get headlines. It's worse because we desperately need to stop pretending that the politically unsavory is more important than the downright un-American.
Both Rove and Gonzales have committed horrible acts that render them unfit for their jobs. But since opposition leaders didn't bother to expose their actions as truly despicable, disgusting, and opposed to all that is good in America, Rove and Gonzales got away with it.
Until now ... at least.
Karl Rove's litany of sleaze is well documented.
In 1986, while working for William Clements' gubernatorial campaign, Rove planted a bug in his own office, then "discovered" it just before his candidate was scheduled for a debate he was figured to lose. The headlines ignored the debate, and concentrated on Rove's claim that Democrats had bugged his office.
In 1992, Rove was working for the elder George Bush's reelection campaign. He planted a phony story with Robert Novak (the same guy who outed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent) about Bush's chief fundraiser, and was fired for being disloyal to the campaign.
In 1994, Rove began his "push-polliing" tactics, helping George W. Bush's successful campaign for Governor of Texas. His push-polls claimed that incumbent Ann Richards had hired lesbians, which didn't play well with the bigots in Texas. Rove continued his push-polling in the 2000 Republican primary, telling voters in South Carolina that Bush's rival, John McCain, had fathered a "little black baby."
Since taking a job in the Bush White House, Rove profited personally from the well-timed sale of stock in such companies as Enron while sitting in on energy policy meetings. He also advised drug companies and Intel on various merger activities, while owning over $100,000 of stock in each of these companies.
It is alleged that Rove had a significant role in the Valerie Plame scandal that led, eventually, to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury and obstruction charges. We still don't know the full extent of Rove's involvement, but we do know he has lied about his role in dealing with Time reported Matt Cooper.
Now it turns out Rove had a major role in firing federal prosecutors who did their jobs rather than cave in to political pressure.
As bad as Karl Rove is, Alberto Gonzales may be even worse.
While working as the counsel to then-Governor George W. Bush, Gonzales drafted the excuse Bush used to get out of jury duty in a drunk driving case - an excuse that was not only pathetic, but also failed to mention Bush's earlier drunk driving conviction.
After moving to the White House when Bush became President, Gonzales drafted the infamous "torture memo," in which he claimed that the Geneva Conventions were "quaint." When questioned by the Senate in his confirmation hearing for Attorney General, he claimed that he didn't know whether he "was in agreement" with the analysis he himself had done.
Gonzales also wrote the memo used to create the military tribunals that the U.S. Supreme Court has since ruled were unconstitutional.
Gonzales' worst moment came on January 18, 2007, as he was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He stated, "There is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution." When questioned by Senator Arlen Specter about this bizarre statement, he claimed that the Constitution only says the right can't be taken away, but that doesn't mean the right exists to begin with.
This statement clearly demonstrates that Alberto Gonzales either doesn't care about the Constitution, or he has no idea what it means. He proved that he is completely unfit to hold any job in any American government, and he should have been fired on the spot. Unfortunately, neither George W. Bush (who clearly doesn't care about the Constitution he has sworn to defend) nor committee chairman Patrick Leahy (who doesn't seem to be doing his new job very well) bothered to do anything about it.
Karl Rove is sleazy, hateful and in every way a pathetic example of what is wrong with politics in America. Alberto Gonzales is a serious threat to our freedom. Both of them should not only be fired, but also thoroughly investigated for a variety of potentially criminal acts committed over the decades in which they held power.
The problem is, instead of going after these two crooked sleaze-mongers for the things that render them unfit to serve, Democrats are attacking them on strictly political lines. This is incredibly stupid, not to mention incompetent. Democrats finally have the power to investigate everything the White House has done over the past six years. But instead of concentrating on the real evils of George W. Bush and his staff, Democrats are playing games.
Vital questions that Democrats are not asking include:
How much contact did Karl Rove have with various groups involved in election fraud in 2004 and 2006? These groups tried a variety of tactics to keep minority voters from the polls, assuming that these voters would cast their ballots for Democrats. Potential minority voters were told they had to have two forms of identification, when they didn't. They were told the wrong date for election day. Naturalized citizens who immigrated to America were told they could be deported for exercising their right to vote. Who are these election fraud groups, and did anyone in the Bush administration have any contact with them?
In addition, what have the voting machine vendors, like Diebold and ES&S, been hiding in their "proprietary software" that caused the unbelievable totals in Ohio in 2004 and the loss of 18,000 votes in one Florida county in 2006? These vendors have made a fortune as a result of the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA), a piece of legislation where the "cure" may have been worse than the "disease." Who wrote the law?
Investigating widespread attempts to steal elections and undermine the basis of American freedom is far more important than determining who in the White House wrote a memo about someone else in the White House. But at this point there is not one Democrat speaking out publicly about that investigation - which makes sense, since so far there isn't even an investigation to speak about.
Regarding the Attorney General, any time the nation's chief law enforcement officer claims that a right guaranteed by the Constitution is not actually there, he needs to be fired as quickly as possible. Where is the discussion of Gonzales' refusal to recognize the right of habeas corpus? Where are the demands for his political head?
How about bringing people who were tortured at the hands of American captors in to testify before Congress? Gonzales wrote the memo that formed the basis for these tortures; where is the investigation of his mindset?
In short, George W. Bush and his administration are the most un-American people ever to inhabit the White House. The time has come to talk about the real reasons they are all unfit for duty. Republicans have proven over the years that they are unwilling to deal with the real threat to our freedom. If Democrats don't step up to the plate, we are in for some very dark days, and years, to come. Unfortunately, so far the Democrats show no signs of doing their job.
Copyright 2007, Dan Jacoby
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