Doctor Charles Krauthammer says in his most recent column that attorney general Alvaro consolidation resign or be fired as soon as possible for his handling of the recent scandal. Says he:
It’s not a question of probity, but of competence. Gonzales has allowed a scandal to be created where there was none. That is quite an achievement. He had a two-foot putt and he muffed it.
How could he allow his aides to go to Capitol Hill unprepared and misinformed and therefore give inaccurate and misleading testimony? How could Gonzales permit his deputy to say that the prosecutors were fired for performance reasons when all he had to say was that U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president and the president wanted them replaced?
And why did Gonzales have to claim that the firings were done with no coordination with the White House? That’s absurd. Why shouldn’t there be White House involvement?
I’m not so sure. the good doctor, in my view, should know better than most, that neither incompetence, nor actual crime for that matter, is required on the part of Republicans to get the Democrats to start screaming “scandal” and calling for investigations. And frankly, that this “scandal” exists at all is evidence of that.
Further, forcing the resignation of Gonzalez, or his taking involuntarily, would be taken by the press and the democrats as an admission of guilt. Why hand the Democrats a victory without a fight? There’s no benefit in it. Matter of fact, there’s more of a benefit of taking them to the mat, showing the American people just how far they will go to score political point.
The way I figure it, once the facts come out, the Democrats will look like the opportunistic power hungry pigs they have always been…. only moreso… Just in time for the 2008 election.
I’m afraid this is one occasion where Doctor Krauthammer and I do not see eye to eye.