It was you, Fredo

For several months I have considered the continuing presence of Alberto Gonzales a personal failure on my part. I had wished him gone. I had said insulting things about him to my friends. I had written things about him, although I didn't quite finish any of them. He deserved to be gone. Nonetheless he was still there.

I just couldn't believe that a man who had lied under oath that often was still the attorney general of the United States. I couldn't believe that those of us on this side of things had been utterly ineffectual at getting rid of him. What's more, I have to admit, I became almost awestruck at his ability to hang in there. Which goes for the whole crew, by the way: say what you will about George Bush (and there is almost nothing I won't), he's still president, and it's amazing how much bad stuff you can continue to do as president even if your poll numbers are below 30.

In any case, Gonzales has resigned. I wish him a happy time hiring lawyers and living off the slush fund someone will set up for him. Soon we will know why he left at this particular moment. The mind reels at the possibilities. What could possibly be even worse than all the things he's survived? At some point we'll find out. Stay tuned.

I hope he's not worried about his legacy, because he will have one, and it will be not unlike what awaits almost all the members of this administration: they will be fodder for art. Yes, art. Dick Cheney said a couple of months ago that history would be his judge, but I beg to differ: history will be nothing compared to the plays. This administration will be the subject of hundreds of plays; the playwrights will be drawn again and again to the astonishing, amazing panoply of evil and complicity the Bush Administration has provided. Gonzales will be a hilarious comic foil in most of these productions -- a jack-in-the-box who will pop out, say he has no recollection whatsoever of anything, and pop back in. Short actors will kill to play him.

By the way, I have a pet theory about Alberto Gonzales: I've always believed that the reason the President called Gonzales Fredo was that when they first met, Bush incorrectly believed that Gonzales' first name was Alfredo, and Gonzales was too much of a toady to correct him.

I meant to download that theory before it was too late, and the good news is, where this administration is concerned, it's never going to be too late.

Comments

[kbckc]

To what extent has the American people metaphorically permitted a brutal sex act to be performed in the region of their anal orifice both by the government and themselves?
Let me count the ways!
1. They have allowed the highest political office in the land to be questionably acquired and occupied by an individual who has a lifetime reputation and track record of being dangerously inept and irresponsible with nearly every thing he has been placed in the position to manage or oversee.
2. Because the rogue nations of the world recognized the weakness and ineptitude of the current occupant, criminal elements of these nations felt fully empowered to attack the sovereignty and safety of the American people through acts of terrorism.
3. Even knowing of the current occupant’s ineptitude, the American people and their chosen representatives have allowed him to select a long list of people much like himself, who have been incompetent, self-serving, and blindly loyal to him.
4. These incompetent sycophants of the current occupant have been allowed to do anything they want in secret and regardless of impact or consequences to the American people, and when their actions and misdeeds have been exposed, they have repeatedly prevaricated and/or attempted to cover up their actions from view of the American people with little or no consequences or appropriate penalties to themselves.
5. Further, these current occupant loyalists have mismanaged their responsibilities, or used their high offices as bunkers for acting out political revenge on their enemies, or both, and then when they were on the verge of being brought to justice for their criminal conduct they have been allowed to simply resign and walk away from the wreckage and turmoil they caused.
6. The world opinion of and respect for America, and by extension the American people, has been deeply and vastly damaged by the current occupant and his minions to the extent that the American people are incurring present and future costs both economic and non-economic that defy quantification.

[film381]

Great blog...

I guess the old addage still holds water: "Ya get what ya vote for"!

Next time people, THINK instead of just look at the candidates! Bush has been a loser his whole life yet few people took time to look that indeed, HE was the worse of two evils at voting time.

Gore may be boring but he was not criminal like this administration.

[sierra]

Yeah, and while "Rome Burns" thousands more are slaughtered in Iraq........

There will be no end to this kind of political disaster until this president is impeached and jailed for international crimes....

Only then will a "message" be sent to others in this country who still believe that "in the age of nuclear weapons" we will prevail because we are a, "god fearing country!"

That goes for both Dems and Repulsivecans.

sierra

[SouthernDemocratDFW]

Now that Gonzo has left Washington, he can hide like a toad under the "executive privilege" umbrella, ella, ella...like Rove, Meyers, and the rest of the cabal.

[sbrownmiller]

Channel hopping for an national news show at 11 after the U.S. Open, I hit upon Pat Roberston's Christian Network. Hey, the guy was good. He said Fredo's spot would be hard to fill because any Bush choice will get mauled by the Dem-controlled confirmation hearings, and what smart person with a secure job would want to go through a massacre for a lame duck pres.

[foofighter]

"They leave time for them to resign after their respective disasters and I don't doubt they pay them off one way or another so they won't talk.

I suspect this will also happen with not-so-Speedy Gonzales but in a matter of months when he is more out of the public eye."

This is what I wrote August 13th and it just goes to show how wrong I could be!

I wasn't considering the possibility that he'd resign much earlier so as to time it with the Congressional recess when the Bushies could get another crook in as AG without being challenged.

But, at least, I predicted that Gonzo would resign soon!

[Sidewhispers]

Yesterday, in Bush's heck-of-a-job-Fredo farewell speech, he said he was saddened by the fact that this good man's name had been dragged through the mud. Can they get away with the "martyrizing" of this toad,fumed I. Then, almost immediately, one of the fired lawyers was asked for his opinion, and he spoke of how his name and the other lawyers' names were dragged through the mud too. For those who feel themselves falling for the saintly Fredo spin, please remember the fallen lawyers--and all the other misdeeds of this "embattled" saint.

[Sidewhispers]

My fear is that Gonzo won't recall being fired and will keep showing up for work.

[MissFortunate]

You know what's making me crazy? Hearing right wing pundits say this was a witch hunt, it's politics only (isn't the senate judiciary committee made up of Democrats and Republicans. Spector hasn't spoken well of Gonzo either). But they continue the spin, it's politics, there is nothing here (nothing becuase the e-mails have been erased! and no one can seem to remember what happened or to show up for their testimony).

And BUSH, oh, they've dragged this poor man through the mud!

If I was any angrier my head would explode. Why aren't more people angry?

[darker]

Bush can "whine" all he wants, the rats are running away from his sinking ship.

Bush-Cheney's JUSTICE DEPT. OF CHAOS under Gonzales must be investigated.
THERE MUST BE ACCOUNTABILITY.

ACCOUNTABILITY is the requirement of a Democracy. Bush-Chene­y-Gonzales served up a chaos of "smoke & mirrors" while behaving like CRIMINALS.

All of them must be investigated and held accountable.

[GenericBlogger]

Alberto Gonzales is not savvy enough to realize his legacy will be negative and the brunt of ridicule.

He will incorrectly rationalize his role as "serving at the pleasure of the president" is more paramount than tending to the country's outmost justice needs and running an effective Justice Department. He let the country down and in some ways, his own culture by failing to be successful as the first Hispanic Attorney General.

[RogerHWerner]

My vote is for Martin Short to play Fredo. He can play a lunatic and sycophant with conviction!

[dahpunkster]

welcome back nora we have missed you ...I thought maybe you quit posting or were sick or something,
anyway like the Godfather context,I can't wait until they start making movies and plays about this administration...(i think the guy who played Joey on Friends would be perfect as berto. I hope those filthy greasy theiving lying bush mobsters suffer immensely for years to come for all the damage and grief and untold grief they have caused this great country ..
I know this niave and won't happen but I hope bush gets it eventually for the criminal garbage he has let happen to us...
and I love the part about bertie being too much of a toad to correct bush.. for misspelling his name...
he reminds more of a leech or a skunk

[frank1569]

"Karl, Al, Tony - things are about to get... you know, bad n'all. Dick's lost it, and there's no reason y'all gotta go down wit dis here sinking, er, ah... boat, see. Y'all done a fine job, your all good fellas, but, as a friend, I am ad-vis-ing you to get out before y'all can't."

"No problem!" "Cya!" "Later boss!"

Que crickets...

[hiprogloho]

While well meaning, I'm afraid the Fredo connotation is old hat. It appeals to cliche pundits who associate any dastardly wrongdoing with small time organized crime that affects communities and city locales instead of Constitutions and nations.

Perhaps if the forefathers of the Roman Empire which lasted a millennium ran this country its blackhandedness would evolve and endure. As it is, our DC Machiavellis are on a much more evil lowlife pecking order level than old world Godfathers.

Moreover, one criminal metaphor exists as a symptom of society's ills while the other is voted into office by the public trust. We choose our mobs in Washington while the ones in the movies are self elected via a survival instinct vs. poverty and discrimination.