Does it get anymore pathetic than Alberto Gonzalez?

The emotions one runs through when thinking about the Alberto Gonzalez fiasco are many: First, you go through anger and a sense that yes! if he is guilty of gross incompetence at the least and criminal wrongdoing at the worst, then he should face the consequences! Then he gets on the witness stand and gives not only one, but a handful of performances that leaves anyone remotely alive watching him with a sense of shock that those words are actually coming out of his mouth. I mean, how does he not see himself as the ridiculous horse's arse that he has become? Has he no sense of decency or loyalty to the country (and no, loyalty to the president is toooootally different than loyalty to country) or office that he holds and that he should be a man of principle and step down?!




The emotional phase then moves over to the furious level, when you realize this nincumpoop is the number one law enforcement officer in the nation, one who has so demoralized and sabotaged our Justice Department that we almost cease to have a functioning arm of our government. And given all of the high crimes and misdemeanors committed around town lately, you would think it necessary and essential to have a functioning Justice Department, yeah? The worst part is that even if this clown were somewhat competent, his unflinching loyalty to W has no bounds, and he would go to the depths of hell and back before doing anything against this president. He never took up the torch of being America's top law officer - he never stopped being W's legal council. It is this innability to discern the difference between president and country that is Gonzalez's most egregious fault.


Slowly the emotion train pulls up into just plain sadness. I am just sad that we have such a pathetic and incompetent president. I am sad that we have a woefully terrible attorney general. Sad that our Congress does not have the moral courage to stand up as a co-equal branch of government and demand accountability for this administration's crimes. What are they afraid of? That blowhards on the Fox News Channel will insult them? That Rush Limbaugh will continue ranting and raving against them?

Has the Congress so pathetically lost its ability to hold another branch of government in check?

A President Besieged and Isolated, Yet at Ease!!!

Waking up this morning with my morning coffee and Washington Post, I almost spat out said coffee on said newspaper. One of the headlines read, "A President Besieged and Isolated, Yet at Ease" (emphasis mine). Now if there ever was a sentence that succinctly summed up this president, by God we have found it!

The article highlights the major failures of this administration since his re-election (Social Security, Hurricane Katrina, the Harriet Miers SCOTUS nomination, the Dubai Ports World fiasco, Cheney shooting a man in the face, the "Three Stooges" a.k.a Abramoff, Delay and Foley, the 2006 midterm elections, "Scooter", Gonzales, Wolfowitz and now last week's immigration bill collapse - breath!) and how they have led a steady drumbeat march down to the current poll levels W faces. Yet the president seems relatively unfazed by all of these crushing defeats.

"For all the setbacks, he remains unflinching, rarely expressing doubt in his direction, yet trying to understand how he got off course."

So W recognizes the various setbacks, but remains unflinching, and is trying to understand how his previous actions got him and our country in the proverbial crapper and off course, yet refuses to change that course. That is just great, and is actually the definition of insanity: When you do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

The best part is a reference to the books W has been reading. A few on our first President, the Algerian war for independence and a new book out on Churchill, who W so happens to admire greatly - and to whom he compares himself!! The author of this book, "Troublesome Young Men," also wrote an op-ed in yesterday's Outlook section where she takes a rather, um, different view from W's. To those who do not want to click on the link and read the article, she basically says that W's actions are more close to Neville Chamberlain's than to Churchill's. A pretty damning, and if you read her arguments, accurate assessment if you ask me.

So here we have a president who apparently does feel the attacks and criticisms against him and is said to truly care about the consequences of our actions in Iraq, but who, in the words of a British historian who recently met with the president, said W "was very friendly, very relaxed. My God, he looked well. He looked like he came off a cruise in the Caribbean. He looked like he hadn't a care in the world. It was amazing."

Indubitably my jolly ol' chap from o'er yonder. It is amazing.