Alberto Gonzales: Next To Go!

When President Bush wants to fire someone, he makes damn sure to sing praises about that person before he pulls the cable for the trapdoor. You don't believe me? Just ask Donald Rumsfeld and Michael Brown!

The moment President Bush stepped in front of the podium Monday morning to host a press conference about the termination of eight U.S. Attorneys, I knew he would stand behind Attorney General Alberto Gonzales 110%. One might suggest that Bush was only trying to be a loyal boss by supporting his subordinate. But all the signs clearly indicate that The White House is setting up Gonzales to be the fall guy.

Just take a moment to consider the circumstances. U.S. Attorneys are political appointees; they serve at the pleasure of the president. As such, it is not uncommon for a sitting president to terminate their appointments at his own choosing. Instead downplaying this incident as business-as-usual, the Bush Administration carefully chose to speak about how "poorly" those fired U.S. Attorneys performed during their tenures. Bush practically invited the whole country to scrutinize his poor performance justification, which was highly subjective and dubious because almost all eight attorneys had reportedly received strong reviews from different sources prior to termination. Guess who's going to explain to the Congress on why those eight ex-U.S. Attorneys were poor performers? You guess it: Alberto Gonzales! Because it was Gonzales' office who handled the bulk of the dirty work, the buck would eventually stop at the Attorney General. Gonzales was placed in an indefensible position.

In addition to this "firing" incident, there are more nails to Gonzales' coffin. For one, an audit report recently issued by the Department of Justice's Inspector General cited that the FBI had broke the law by misusing National Security Letters in conducting criminal investigations.

Lastly, I speculate that the Bush Administration is pretty much done with Gonzales anyway. Bush had always wanted to nominate Gonzales to the Supreme Court. The death of William Rehnquist and the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor didn't change Gonzales' odds either because nobody with a sound mind would confirm a person who infamously interprets the Geneva Convention allowing torture of enemy combatants in Gizmo.

My prediction is that Alberto Gonzales would resign within two weeks. I think President Bush would willing to put up with the nomination process for a new Attorney General rather than saving his current one.