Gonzales - Idiot or Worse?

Remember the sneaky little bit about the Administration being able to appoint replacement federal prosecutors without Senate confirmation? There was that bit about the Appeals Courts doing it being Unconstitutional and tooooooooo time consuming in this era of imminent danger. Apparently now that everybody and their brother is hot about it, The Admin is no longer committed to it, they will no longer oppose legislation limiting the AG's power. After the meeting Sen Arlen Spector had this to say, "One day there will be a new attorney general, maybe sooner rather than later," which might lead one to think he's unhappy and that maybe a little pushing around occurred. This is the same nit picker that stated that because the Constitution only prohibits the suspension of Habeas Corpus in certain circumstances that it's not otherwise a guaranteed right. Now why would anybody talk about replacing such an intellect?

Gonzales also allowed the Senate to call five top level Justice officials involved in the Pearl Harbor, um, Dec. 7th firing of 7 federal prosecutors. For some reason these prosecutors took to heart allegations that their firings had to do with performance issues and began to object. Some people other than the fired ones found it odd that their latest performance ratings were fine. Some Senators are concerned that the firings and the hiring procedure would be used to place political cronies. Karl Rove, one of whose cronies has already been appointed, said these actions are, "normal and ordinary," after the AG's appearance. Someone must've forgotten to tell him. I've heard somebody runs the show over there...

So, how bad does all this stink? Bad enough to get the lap dogs in the Senate stirred up.