People are coming out of the woodwork now, calling for Gonzales to resign. I think it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Dick Cheney is about to find out just exactly how long two years can be. Reuters quotes Democratic Senators, saying Gonzo should step down. Here’s video of Shumer calling for Gonzo’s head. The good boys over at TPM stopped pulling their punches long ago. In this post, they point out that the real story is about the US Attorneys who HAVEN’T been fired- presumably becuase they were perfectly willing to obstruct justice whenever Gonzo asks them to do so. Remember, just before Carol Lam left her post, she delivered a pair of indictments that strike right at the heart of the CIA. This scandal isn’t over by a long shot.
And Digby is ahead of the curve, as usual, pointing out that Abu isn’t smart enough to have thought of this all by his lonesome, and that Rove is clearly the man driving the bus. And McClatchy confirms.
Very nifty and thorough post. I agree this scandal is just getting started. Aside from token conviction (Libby for perjury), do you see any of this administrations scandals ending with consequences?
I guess that depends on how far you think “this administration” extends. Duke Cunningham is in jail. David Safavian has been convicted. Abramoff is in jail. What seems to be missing from most MSM coverage is the idea that these guys were all just a part of the same big scam.
It’s not so much lots of little scandals, as it is ONE BIG criminal enterprise. It worked like this: $$ appropriated by R’s in Congress (Cunningham) for black ops in CIA (Goss and Foggo). CIA gives money to no-bid contracts, with awards picked by political appointees (Safavian). The contractor (Wilkes) takes money from black-ops contracts, legitimately “contributes” it to PACS (Ambramoff and DeLay) or just stuffs it back into the pockets of the R’s in Congress (Cunningham again).
And the circle of corruption is complete. Of course, the money they’re all laundering back and forth originally came out of your pocket.
I think the question you’re asking is: there are a lot of loose threads. Will Congressional Democrats have the political will to keep pulling them? Will investigators follow the path to where it leads? Do they have the courage to tie everything back together in a way that Americans can understand just how badly we’ve been used for the past six years?
And my answer would be, gosh I hope so. Becuase ultimately what we’re talking about here is that our political leadership has become so perverted that your tax dollars are being spent on the false imprisonment and torture of human beings, with the blessing of the three most powerful members of the United States government.
If there aren’t “consequences” for the abomination the Executive Branch has become, this wholesale abuse of what America stands for, our whole system of government is nothing but a sham. For all of us who still belive in the Constitution, I hope that Congress will have the courage to show the world once again that we are a nation of laws, not of men.