Gonzales: Why Resign Now?

Why did Gonzales step down now after so much resistance to doing so and public vows that it would not happen? Here's one view, but I still wonder if there isn't more to it than this:

Why did Gonzales resign?, by Sidney Blumenthal, Salon: ...Alberto Gonzales swiftly turned heel on the stage at the Department of Justice... What is he not telling about his resignation?

The true story may be something like the denouement of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Purloined Letter," which was in plain sight all along, a solution that can, as Poe wrote, "escape observation by dint of being excessively obvious..." To be excessively obvious, Gonzales' resignation, following Karl Rove's exactly by two weeks, is the shadow of the first act.

Under investigation by the House and Senate Judiciary committees for his part in the political purge of U.S. attorneys and warrantless domestic surveillance, Gonzales wandered through his appearances down winding paths of dissembling. On the U.S. attorneys, his former deputies ... contradicted him. On domestic spying, the former acting attorney general, James Comey, described then White House counsel Gonzales' attempted coup on behalf of a program Comey considered illegal through Gonzales' securing the signature of the ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft, barely able to lift his head in his hospital bed after surgery. After Gonzales offered a different account, FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared before the Senate on July 27 to corroborate Comey's version, staking his position against Gonzales' credibility. Senators called for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

In the weeks leading up to his resignation, Gonzales was undoubtedly aware of the various investigations into his activities, ... not all of them in public. As a practiced attorney, he knew that once he left government service he would become less interesting to investigators and that whatever revelations ... would have less political impact. The logic of his resignation became indisputable... But the resignation of Rove severed his lifeline to his political control agent. Without Rove, Gonzales was adrift.

From the beginning of his rise with George W. Bush until the day of his abrupt resignation, Alberto Gonzales was anointed, directed and protected by Karl Rove. ... Bush did not nickname Gonzales "Fredo," after the weak brother in "The Godfather," without reason. ...

To the extent that Gonzales was pliable he was useful. But his "remarkable journey," as he called it today in his resignation statement, was remarkable only for his unwavering subservience.

From the start, Rove and Gonzales were secret sharers. But one was "the Architect" and the other was "Fredo." With Rove's resignation, Gonzales lost the political and policy hand that had guided him all along. When the puppet master departed, the puppet collapsed in a heap.

Comments

[ken melvin]

Good article. I've a feeling the director Mueller knows.

[RW]

The article's premise seems to beg the question: If Gonzalez is resigning because his handler, Rove, departed then why did his handler resign? If a 'simple' explanation is desired it seems equally plausible that Rove saw a need to distance himself and, possibly, other Bush loyalists from the consequences of what a Cheney guided administration plans to do in the remaining months of its tenure.

I continue to believe we will have reason to regret impeachment hearings WRT Bush-Cheney were not initiated the instant Congress reconvened after the '06 election.

[Thomas More]

I'm just glad he finally had the grace to stop embarrasing himself and our country. Frankly I don't care why, just that he's gone.

[TigerPaw]

A good question is, if Cheney talks Bush into starting something even more horrific than is already going on (e.g. war with Iran) will the military have the nerve to stand up and say "no"?

I know they've been taught that they have to follow orders, but there comes a point where "I was just following orders" is not an acceptable defence. Did the Wehrmacht get a free pass at Nuremberg simply because they just followed orders?

Perhaps one of the lesser Democrats needs to broach the subject. The mainstream candidates are still too scared of their own shadows to say that people need to be held to account for everything that has happened.

[donna]

Well, you can speculate with me on this:

http://portal.grandecom.net/news/read.php?id=15434897&ps=1011&lang=en&_LT=HOME_USNWC01L2_UNEWS

I think someone picked on the wrong bunch of lawyers. ;^)

Tuesday might have been an interesting day if Gonzo hadn't resigned. ;^)

[Patricia Shannon]

Well, it may help Bush & Cheney for Gonzales to resign, but as far as the welfare of the U.S., Bush is going to nominate Gonzales's successor, which doesn't give me much reassurance we will get a person of integrity and competence to replace him.

[calmo]

Patricia, do you figure w nominated Robert Gates to replace Rummy or was the Decider informed who would be the next Secretary of Defense?

[Patricia Shannon]

Calmo

I was wondering the same thing myself.

[dd]

So, Gonzo has survived an onslaught but his resignation has as the most prominent nexus the Vick event (a waste of federal level resources; but a level 5 political distraction). Then what if Vick is connected to the unexpected politically and a quantum swan event. Just a random thought.

[Bruce Wilder]

Crooked Timber reveals all: his resignation was timed to coincide with the Daily Show summer hiatus.

http://crookedtimber.org/2007/08/28/suspicious-timing/

[Mark P]

Punchline Avoidance

Has anyone else noticed that that the Daily Show and Colbert went on vacation last Friday?

[me]

Mike Vick?????