Gonzales Lied - Big Surprise
by Steve
If you wanted any more proof that Alberto is lying about the attorney firings, you have your choice of several media stories today about last night’s Friday evening document dump, wherein it was revealed that contrary to his earlier statements Gonzales knew about and was directly involved in the firings.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior advisers discussed the plan to remove seven United States attorneys at a meeting last Nov. 27, 10 days before the dismissals were carried out, according to a Justice Department calendar entry disclosed Friday.
The previously undisclosed meeting appeared to contradict Mr. Gonzales’s previous statements about his knowledge of the dismissals. He said at a news conference on March 13 that he had not participated in any discussions about the removals, but knew in general that his aides were working on personnel changes involving United States attorneys.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales met with senior aides on Nov. 27 to review a plan to fire a group of U.S. attorneys, according to documents released last night, a disclosure that contradicts Gonzales's previous statement that he was not involved in "any discussions" about the dismissals.
Last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he was not involved in any discussions about the impending dismissals of U.S. attorneys.
On Friday night, however, the Justice Department revealed Gonzales' participation in a Nov. 27 meeting where such plans were discussed.
Internal Bush administration e-mails suggest that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may have played a bigger role than he has acknowledged in the plan to fire several U.S. attorneys.
The e-mails, delivered to Congress Friday night, show that Gonzales attended an hourlong meeting on the firings on Nov. 27, 2006 - 10 days before seven U.S. attorneys were told to resign. The attorney general's participation in the session calls into question his assertion that he was essentially in the dark about the firings.
In addition, the McClathcy story shows that other Justice senior staff and White House staff were more involved in the matter than they have said they were. The record is building that many in the administration have been lying about this issue from Day One, yet the only response from Bush is to blame Democrats for picking fights, and to express his support once again for his lying AG.
Lying doesn't bother Bush. The question for Democrats is whether they should accept a serial prevaricator as the senior law enforcement official in the land, especially after the hypocrisy on this issue by the GOP during the 1990's. At what point will Democrats think about 1) forcing the court challenge and allowing that to drag on for over a year while they tie up Bush's appointments and budget; or 2) accept that Bush is comfortable with lying and simply move for the impeachment of Alberto Gonzales?