SCANDAL FATIGUE

By: Eugene Robinson

WASHINGTON—It’s way past bedtime for Gonzo. At this point, every day Alberto Gonzales continues as attorney general means more dishonor for the office and the nation—and higher blood pressure for Senate Judiciary Committee members trying desperately to get a straight answer out of the man.

Gonzo has managed to do something no one else in Washington has managed in years: create a spirit of true bipartisanship. After his pathetic act in front of the committee Tuesday, it’s no surprise that Democrats are threatening to investigate him for perjury. But it was Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican, who looked Gonzo in the face and told him, “I do not find your testimony credible, candidly.”

Specter seems ready to pop a gasket. “The hearing two days ago was devastating” for Gonzo, Specter said Thursday. “But so was the hearing before that, and so was the hearing before that.”

Over time, one becomes almost numb to this administration’s relentless lies and can-you-top-this transgressions. A kind of “outrage fatigue” sets in, accompanied by the knowledge that whatever it is that they’ve done this time, it could have been worse.

So when George W. Bush rewrote history the other day by saying that “al-Qaida terrorists killed Americans on 9/11 [and] they’re fighting us in Iraq,” the tendency is to duly note that the president is not telling the truth—there is no evidence whatsoever that al-Qaida in Iraq, which didn’t exist at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, takes orders from Osama bin Laden—and then move on. Hey, at least it’s just talk. At least he didn’t invade Iran or Pakistan. Yet.

For me, at least, Gonzo is the perfect antidote to midsummer apathy. The guy is ... I was going to say the guy’s unbelievable, but I’d just be repeating the bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill.

What set the senators a-sputtering was Gonzo’s testimony about the night in 2004 when he showed up at the hospital bedside of his predecessor, John Ashcroft, to try to get him to overrule his deputy and reauthorize Bush’s secret program of warrantless electronic eavesdropping. The Justice Department had concluded, most inconveniently for the White House, that the program as then constituted was illegal.

i was listening to olberman the other night and he and a few other experts on the show made some key clarifying points about gonzos perjury.

1. to begin with the effort to get/coerce ashcrofts signature on a later-to-be-determined-illegal-program document is technically illegal. if ashcroft had signed the document it would have been the authorization by a private citizen on classified government material. ashcroft lowerd the boom on his 2 visitors even while under heavy sedation and let them know that he would not be a part of thier illegal plan.

2. continuing with gonzos farcical testimony we also heard him change gears/story when he was asked about who sent him to ashcroft and what specific document he and card had taken with them. he then further deepened the perjury by falsely claiming that the program document he and card took to ashcroft was in fact in regards to another type of serveillance program. then olberman roled the video from his earlier testimony weeks ago which proved once again he was lying on this aspect also.

3. another piont brought up by olberman was when gonzo made the false claim about the socalled bipartisan emergency meeting at the white house in which he again falsely claimed was about the urgency to author/reauthorize the illegal spying program being discussed. to check up on his story reporters did an interview with sen. jay rockefeller from west virginia in which they were attempting to verify gonzos story. turns out though that it pretty much sounds like sen. rockefeller was at the very least a little perplexed/confused from the questions as he didn't seem to be able to recall anything whatsoever from the ludicrous account given by gonzo in his sworn testimony.

these 3 points, along with a plethora of ever mounting ones yet to be made will more'n likely be the impetus for the soon coming perjury charges that will implode gonzos career................

............and then when the bushicons make the move to commute or pardon gonzo from all charges the congress will have the ample outrage/ammo to begin impeachment proceedings on g.w. for the felonious charge of obstruction of justice.

this thing could well spin into the utter can of worms that the bushicons won't be able to wiggle out of.

been sayin/suspecting this all along that the dems are taking thier time for a reason..............they're baiting and setting the trap.

problem is though, at what point will the bushicons realize they have no other option than to use a precipitous event like another staged 9/11 to preserve thier grip on power and declare martial law just to keep thier asses out of jail.



a whole 'nother can of worms indeed.

At this point it seems that a perjury investigation is moot; Gonzalez has already lied often enough, and blatantly enough, that it should be a matter of Specter going to Conyers and demanding impeachment.

The Vietnam veterans had a phrase they used at various times while fighting in that awful jungle. They would say "back in the world." Vietnam vets I hope will correct me if I'm wrong, but it probably meant that they saw their situation in Vietnam as being something of a "twilight zone" that they'd been forced to enter. It wasn't normal. It wasn't sane. It wasn't supposed to be, but they were there, doing their duty, but they did someday hope to return to living everyday lives back in their hometowns, the places they perceived as the "real world."

The Bushies have led us down another rabbit hole with Gonzo, and nothing is going on there that would be going on in the real world. If you or I got up on a witness stand and lied, and lied, and lied some more, and the prosecutor or the defense attorney knew and had evidence that proved that I'd lied, would there be an "investigation?" Would there be tax dollars spent to find out what they already knew? Would they waste the court's time, and the people's time, and their own time? NO! I'd be branded a perjurer and either be fined or sent to jail or BOTH....postehaste. My testimony would be thrown out, my credibility would be forever tainted, and I would never be trusted again by those that valued truth.

The Democrats know Gonzo has lied. The Republicans know Gonzo has lied. Gonzo knows he's lied. And the American people and the rest of the world know he's lied. He's committed perjury every time he's been questioned. What more is there to investigate? Let's stop wasting the Senate's time and the people's time....put Gonzo into the "real world." Charge him with perjury and then show the evidence, the same evidence the people already know exists. Bush and his cronies like Gonzo think they're immune and invincible. They need to be shown that they're not above the law of the "real world."

Whatever it takes to accomplish that end, get on with it, Senators... and get yourselves and all concerned out of Bush's rabbit hole and "back to the world."