No surprise here……and if asked about it he’ll say “I don’t recall.”

Alberto Gonzales and other top White House lawyers took part in discussions about destroying CIA videotapes of interrogation of two al Qaeda suspects, the New York Times reported Tuesday night on its Web site.

Alberto Gonzales was White House counsel until early 2005, when he became U.S. attorney general.

At least four top White House lawyers discussed the issue with the CIA between 2003 and 2005, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials the newspaper did not identify.

Gonzales, the former attorney general who served as White House counsel until early 2005, was among those who took part, the officials said.

Also involved, according to the Times’ sources, were David Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet Miers, who succeeded Gonzales as White House counsel.

One former senior intelligence official told the Times there had been “vigorous sentiment” among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes.

More at CNN

I hope he gets heckled everywhere he goes! I heard there were many alumni and students who were NOT happy the university paid $40,000 for him to speak.

Hounded by hecklers and protesters, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended an admittedly imperfect record before a raucous University of Florida audience Monday night.

Gonzales devoted much of his speech to encouraging students to enter public service, despite the criticism that public officials like himself endure.

The fervency of that criticism was readily apparent as several protesters stood with their backs turned toward Gonzales throughout his speech, frequently interrupted him with calls of �liar� and �treason� and, in some cases, stormed the stage.

Two UF students, wearing black hoods over their heads and orange suits that resembled those worn by prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, hopped onto the stage next to Gonzales before they were arrested by UF Police. As the men were removed from the auditorium, Gonzales said, �Our young men and women fight overseas to preserve this kind of freedom of speech.

Read more and watch videos at the Gainesville Sun

Wouldn’t you like to use a little of that torture on the assholes who endorsed it? This is the administration of liars, bullies and criminals.

When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head’slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

More at the New York Times

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
The Associated Press

Goodbye and good riddance, you criminal. - JS

WASHINGTON - Resigning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left the scandal’scarred Justice Department on Friday, declaring himself hopeful about its mission of ferreting out crime and defending the truth.

Gonzales quit after 2 1/2 years at the department amid investigations into whether he broke the law and lied to Congress. He has denied any wrongdoing.

President Bush is expected to announce a nominee next week to replace his longtime friend and fellow Texan.

In a Friday morning speech, Gonzales said his time at the Justice Department made him determined to fight terrorists and sexual predators and crack down on guns, drugs and gang violence plaguing the nation’s neighborhoods.

“Over the past two and a half years, I have seen tyranny, dishonesty, corruption and depravity of types I never thought possible,” Gonzales said in prepared remarks at a Hispanic Heritage Month ceremony at Bolling Air Force Base. “I’ve seen things I didn’t know man was capable of.

“But I will tell you here and now that these things still leave me hopeful,” he said. “Because every time I see a glimmer of the evil man can do, I see the defenders of liberty, truth and justice who stand ready to fight it.”

read more HERE

from Think Progress

Want to take some action? Everyone should. Including YOU! It’s your responsibility to be part of this democracy and be an informed part of the electorate. If you don’t speak up, no one is going to do it for you, and it will be business as usually with this disasterous President and his band of criminals. - JS

Spying on Americans? Alberto said, “Yes, Mr. President.”
Fire US Attorneys for political reasons? Alberto said, “Your wish is my command.”
Torture? Alberto said, “Absolutely!”

Alberto Gonzales could not say “No” to the President, no matter how unconstitutional or illegal the request. We need an Attorney General who can stand up for the American people and say “No” when the White House tries to step on our rights.

Write to your Senator NOW and demand they ask the next Attorney General nominee if they would have said “No” to these policies:

* Warrantless Wiretapping
* Blocking Investigations into the Warrantless Wiretapping Program
* Torture
* Firing the US Attorneys
* Politicizing the Department of Justice
* Presidential Signing Statements

Take action today HERE

Here’s the Democrats idiots who voted to confirm Gonzales.
Landrieu (D-LA)Nelson (D-FL)Nelson (D-NE)Pryor (D-AR)Lieberman (D-CT)Salazar (D-CO)

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said Sunday that finding out whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied or otherwise misled Congress will help senators pick a worthy successor.

Leahy, D-Vt., has asked Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine to look into whether Gonzales gave inaccurate testimony about the firings of several U.S. attorneys last year.

“I am very pleased that it’s being done, because I think that we should have the answers, and I have a great deal of confidence in the inspector general,” Leahy said. “I have told the White House there’s a lot of information we need to have before a confirmation hearing.”

Leahy said that senators need to know what sort of advice Gonzales gave President Bush to help them ask whether the next prospective attorney general would be different.

“I want to know what some of those areas - what the advice was, so we can ask somebody coming in - both Republicans and Democrats can ask somebody coming in, `Will you give the same kind of advice? How do you feel about this torture memo? How do you feel about the warrantless wiretapping of Americans?’,” said Leahy.

More at Yahoo News

Isn’t this kinda like Tom Delay questioning Bob Ney on corruption? Or, Larry Craig questioning David Vitter on conduct?

Justice Dept. examining Gonzales’ honesty

At the request of Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, the Justice Department is looking into whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, seen here at Monday’s resignation announcement, made intentionally false, misleading or inappropriate statements.

Announcement comes three days after A.G.’s resignation

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department said Thursday it is investigating whether resigning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied or otherwise mislead Congress last month in sworn testimony about the Bush administration’s domestic terrorist spying program.

The inquiry, confirmed by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, comes three days after Gonzales abruptly announced he was stepping down despite months of vowing he would remain on the job.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, who two weeks ago asked for the inquiry, Fine said his investigators believe they “will be able to assess most of the issues that you raise in your letter.”

Leahy had also asked Fine to look into whether Gonzales gave inaccurate testimony about the firings of several U.S. attorneys last year.

Associated Press

A “credible” replacement? Seems to me any John or Jane Doe on the street would have more credibility than Alberto! To find someone with equal or less credibility would require a guest-pass to a GOP convention. (shudder)

If they refuse to look outside of their own party, it just ain’t gonna happen.

Job opening for attorney general with credibility

(CNN) — The next attorney general must carry enough stature to push White House anti-terrorism policies, combined with the charm and credibility to win over congressional Democrats, a former Justice Department official said.

Alberto Gonzales did not take reporters’ questions Monday after announcing his resignation.

Facing congressional investigations into a secret wiretapping program and the firing of eight prosecutors, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation Monday after months of bipartisan calls for him to step down.

“The Justice Department has been essentially paralyzed for more than a year,” CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said. “If this administration wants to accomplish anything before President Bush’s term ends in 17 months, they need a credible attorney general.”

Thom Patterson, CNN

Source: CNN.com

From a post over at AMERICAblog, Bush: Gonzo left after months of “unfair treatment”:

I have to agree with president Bush here. Let’s take a quick look at Fredo’s record, shall we?

Gonzo:

I could go on, but I’m running out of space.

So, you see, he HAS been treated unfairly! He’s still walking around free, isn’t he? Does he look like he’s locked up in a prison to you? With this record, that’s where he should be!

by John Nichols
The Nation

Facing the prospect of increasingly aggressive congressional inquiries into his politicization of the Department of Justice, as well as an energetic House push for his impeachment, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced that he will resign effective September 17.

Gonzales, the former White House counsel who made clear during his two-and-a-half-year tenure as the nation’s top cop that he served President Bush rather than the Constitution, announced his exit strategy just days before the Congress returns from a summer break during which senators and representatives had gotten an earful about the need to get rid of Gonzales.

A proposal by Washington Democrat Jay Inslee, a respected former prosecutor, to have the House Judiciary Committee investigate whether Gonzales should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, attracted 27 cosponsors during the current recess and would have drawn many more with the return of the House in early September.

The Attorney General was ripe for impeachment — or, at the very least, the censure proposed by U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin — because of a rapidly broadening recognition that Gonzales had displayed a blatant disregard for the law since his arrival in Washington in 2001 at the side of his longtime friend and political benefactor George Bush.

“Alberto Gonzales was the ‘Enabler General’ for the imperial Bush presidency,” said People For the American Way President emeritus Ralph G. Neas upon learning of the Attorney General’s decision. “He undermined the Constitution, made a mockery of the rule of law, and turned the Justice Department into an arm of the Bush Administration’s political operation.

Gonzales, whose signature line was a declaration that he served “at the pleasure of the president,” made it his business as White House Counsel and Attorney General to do just that

.

read more HERE