AG looks like the next scapegoat for administration

Gonzalez, who moved from being President George W. Bushs good and loyal friend to become White House counsel to then the nations highest law enforcement official, is starting to look like this administrations latest sacrificial lamb.

It all started when the Justice Department fired eight sitting federal prosecutors.

Its not unheard of for a new president to dump all 93 U.S. attorneys at the start of the administration and replace them with his choices, who are then subject to Senate confirmation. President Bill Clinton did just that.

The new prosecutors then serve at least through the presidents time in office, pretty much independently. Thats the way it has always worked. The idea is to minimize political interference in the legal system.

But firing prosecutors in the middle of an administration is very rare indeed. Legal, but rare. Before now it has only been done five times in 25 years.

This was supposed to be just a minor blip on the radar. No one was supposed to have noticed. These U.S. attorneys were supposed to go away quietly. The administration would then have been able under the Patriot Act to appoint ‘interim federal prosecutors who could serve without Senate confirmation. This provision to the Patriot Act, by the way, was a last-minute request by the White House and was not part of the original House and Senate bills.

Didnt happen that way. The prosecutors who got the pink slips didnt go quietly. And the media and Democrats started asking questions.

At first, Gonzalez took the attitude that the dismissal of the prosecutors was an internal matter at the Justice Department and that anyone questioning such decisions was merely trying to stir up trouble.

That didnt fly. This administration has counted on some notions of imperial privilege in the past, but the strategy has worn thin and the people arent buying the ‘just trust us theme anymore. They want their questions answered.

So the AG decided to reveal to the public that the reason for the firings was poor performance.

That didnt fly either. It turns out that their official job evaluations didnt reflect poor performance.

Scrambling now, Gonzalez joined by others in the administration in a much-too-late effort at damage control claimed that there were no political motivations behind the attorneys being given the sack. Oh yeah, and the White House wasnt involved in any way. Really. Scouts honor.

Turns out that wasnt quite true, as subsequent revelations have shown. It appears that Republican lawmakers and the White House had repeatedly pushed for investigations of Democrats on flimsy allegations, especially the flexible charge of ‘voter fraud. Allegations the prosecutors in question found spurious.

The eight refused to play the game. And so, for them, it was game over.

In the wake of all of this, D. Kyle Sampson, Gonzalezs chief of staff, resigned Monday. Apparently it was hoped his head would be enough.

It wasnt.

And so Gonzalez, in a news conference Tuesday, fell on his sword, admitting mistakes were made and accepting responsibility. He says his future as AG is up to the president, at whose pleasure he serves, but that he hopes to stick around and clear up this mess.

Gonzalez to the rescue? How? By creating and trying to sell another tall tale?

The U.S. attorney general indeed serves at the pleasure of the president. And so do all federal prosecutors, including the eight who were fired.

So did the order to fire the eight come from Gonzalez or from his boss?

And are there prosecutors still serving who did play ball and engage in politically motivated investigations? What were the outcome of those investigations? Are there Americans who have been wrongfully punished because of these actions?

These are questions to which that Congress must demand answers from Gonzalez and this administration.

As for Gonzalezs future, this AG has shown he is either a pawn or a patsy. Either way he is in an untenable position. Gonzalez simply cannot expect to remain as attorney general.

Nor can the president at whose pleasure he serves expect to keep him there.

But it is likely that decision has already been made.

As much as our president and his inner circle claim to deplore the attitude of ‘cut and run’ it worked well for him and Vice President Dick Cheney in the case of Scooter Libby. And it likely will work equally as well with AG Alberto Gonzalez.

After all, if you cant throw old friends and loyal lackeys to the dogs in order to save yourself, who can you throw?