Be INFORMED

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Alberto In The Hot Seat Today

   Today is the day that Alberto Gonzales goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee to lie to it about the firings of 8 prosecutors, which we all know was carried out for political reasons.

   Since Gonzales hasn't been truthful about the firings ever since this story broke, he most certainly cannot afford to start this late in the game. He only has one other option and that would be to plead the 5th Amendment so that he doesn't incriminate himself.

    Senate Judiciary Committee has Alberto scheduled to testify all day today under oath.

   Although many Republicans have called for Gonzales to resign, along with many Democrats, there remain a few who support him.

  Sen. Orrin Hatch: "The sooner it's over, the better. If he just answers the questions, he'll be fine." 

   Rep. Chris Cannon: "I hope he doesn't apologize. He is in a really miserable position where people are focused and saying nasty things. He thinks that he acted appropriately. I told him he ought to be less gracious in his responses."

Associated Press

Critics allege that some of the eight fired were dismissed to interfere with ongoing corruption investigations in ways that might help Republicans. Gonzales strongly denies that, but Democrats have maintained that a stiff denial is insufficient without more details.

Some Republicans acknowledge that merely sticking to the talking points in Gonzales' prepared testimony will make it hard for him to hang onto his job. The committee's senior Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, dismissed the prepared remarks as "pablum."    

      If the Senate Judiciary Committee does their job right today, Alberto Gonzales will be leaving in tears when the day is over. I'd rather it be handcuffs but we still have time for that later on.

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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Bush Taken Aback By Reid/Pelosi Comments To Him

   I wish that I could have been a fly on the wall during the Bush and Reid/Pelosi discussion over the war funding!

  From TPM we have this tidbit.

      By Greg Sargent

First, the source says, Bush bristled and was taken aback when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid compared the current situation to Vietnam; he also appeared irked by those who said the war couldn't be won.

Second, according to the source, Reid told Bush that he understood that the White House would come after Congressional Dems after the veto of the bill with everything they had; Reid vowed to respond every bit as aggressively.

"Reid talked about a recent conversation he had with a retired general where they talked about the similarities between the current situation and Vietnam," the source relates. "He talked about how the President and Secretary of Defense [during Vietnam] knew that the war was lost but continued to press on at the cost of thousands of additional lives lost."

"The analogy to Vietnam appeared to touch a nerve with the President. He appeared a little sensitive to it," the source continued. "And he clearly didn't like to hear people in the room say that the war couldn't be won militarily."

More: "Reid made it clear to the President that he understood that the President and Vice President after the veto would come after him and Speaker Pelosi with everything they have. Reid said that he and Pelosi would respond just as aggressively. He said he was convinced that they were on the right side of the issue."

     You may want to go this article and read the third comment which was left by a TPM reader.

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