Here’s the official statement of Senator Mitch McConnell (R) on the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Notice that McConnell frames Gonzales’s departure in the same light that Governor Ernie Fletcher (R) places his own problems.

Republicans don’t seem to think there’s anything wrong with their illegal actions; what’s wrong with the situation is that Democrats are trying to keep them honest.

In short, Republicans seem to think that the GOP cannot exist in an honest, law-abiding, transparent political environment.

McConnell on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
from the Office of Senator Mitch McConnell

Monday, August 27, 2007

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement on Monday on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

“I thank Alberto Gonzales for his public service and wish him well in his future endeavors. It is my hope that whomever President Bush selects as the next Attorney General, he or she is not subjected to the same poisonous partisanship that we’ve sadly grown accustomed to over the past eight months.”

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(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

Tomorrow at 2:00, six Congressmen, all former prosecutors, are holding a press conference to announce their resolution for the Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should be impeached.

The resolution is sponsored by Jay Inslee (D-WA) and co-sponsored by Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Michael A. Arcuri (D-NY), Dennis Moore (D-KS) and Bruce Braley (D-IA) and, I’m proud to say, our own Rep. Ben Chandler.

It’s good to see Ben stand up for the rule of law and against the mockery that the Bush administration has made of our Justice Department.

Go give him some love.

(h/t our departed KY blogmaster)

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The Louisville Courier-Journal slams the leadership of Senator Mitch McConnell in an editorial today, with particular reference to McConnell’s efforts to save Attorney General Alberto Gonzales but on broader trends as well.

The larger problem? Essentially, it’s that Senator McConnell has decided that if he and his fellow Republicans can just sit out the rest of the Bush administration for another year or so, then the GOP can begin rebuilding and reinvigorating itself around a new presidential candidate. You know McConnell goes to bed ever night telling himself that it can’t get any worse — but Bush has a way of defying expectations, doesn’t he?

It’s a dangerous game to play, really; it’s like that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer sees how far he can drive his car without refilling on gas: as such, there is a chance for the thrill of victory for McConnell, but more than likely he and his party are going to be stranded on the side of the road while the rest of the nation passes them by at high speed.

When the Bush administration is said and done, the energy of the GOP will be consumed for years just coming to terms with the meaning and mess of George W. Bush. He will hang around their neck like an albatross for a long, long time, and the Republicans will still have to deal with all the religiously fanatic nutcases that he’s filled the party’s ranks with. How successful can the Republican party be when it’s dominant faction is one that sees the Second Coming around every corner?

Here’s what the C-J had to say:

Serving justice or self?

It is only natural for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to serve as a partisan henchman, but when does it become necessary to forgo impish politics and actually serve with the interest of the country in mind?

Sen. McConnell was successful this week in building a strong enough GOP bloc to avoid a Senate no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. (A motion to end debate passed, 53-38, but required 60 votes.) Or at least he built the illusion of a Republican bloc, because what spoke volumes was the lengths to which Republican senators resorted in order not to defend Mr. Gonzalez. Sometimes what isn’t said is all that anyone needs to hear.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called the Democrats’ push to force Mr. Gonzales from office “political theater” while Sen. McConnell attacked them for wasting time on “a meaningless resolution.”

Although President Bush stood by his man, not a word was uttered in the Senate in defense of Mr. Gonzales’ leadership at the Department of Justice. Why? Because Mr. Gonzales is indefensible.

What has been lost amidst the Republican claims this has been nothing but “political theater” is that Mr. Gonzales’ ethical backbone has become even weaker in recent weeks. While he insists he’s forgotten nearly every executive decision on his watch over the last year, he has been accused of trying to force his predecessor, John Ashcroft, to support illegal secretive wiretappings that Mr. Ashcroft considered unconstitutional. Former Gonzales aides Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson have resigned for their roles in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, all Bush appointees who refused to follow the partisan and legally shaky objectives of the White House.

And just this week, The Washington Post reported, due to Gonzales’ hiring practices, the country’s newest immigration judges are underqualified GOP partisans. Former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, Karl Rove’s former top political lieutenant, were subpoenaed by the Senate in order to find out why the White House was meddling in the work of federal prosecutors.

Almost as disturbing as Mr. Bush’s loyalty to Mr. Gonzales is Sen. McConnell’s characterization of all this as “meaningless.” Mr. Gonzales should have been removed from the Justice Department months ago, though it now appears he could make it through 2008, just like his boss, with very little support or moral clout. And the Republicans’ silent support does nothing but undermine those who actually want the Justice Department to dispense justice.

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Think Progress has news on developments in Senator Mitch McConnell’s promised retribution for Democrats bringing Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez up for a no-confidence vote in the Senate.

Conservatives May Target Schumer As Retribution For No-Confidence Vote

To counter the fallout of an Alberto Gonzales no-confidence vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has repeatedly said he will bring an alternative resolution to the floor. Today, Roll Call previews what that alternative, targeting Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), may look like:

“He may get a dose of his own medicine,” said Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.), adding, “Schumer is clearly way out of order. … This isn’t going to be free.”

One Senate Republican source explained that such a resolution would not name Schumer directly, but instead instruct the Senate to vote on whether a Senator who runs a campaign committee should be “using his political capacity to run the show” on an investigation such as the U.S. attorneys scandal. Schumer is the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

“My sense is, we’re going to let them get cloture, and we’re going to talk about it,” the source said. “We have more dirt to throw at them than they have at us.”

This line of attack — that Schumer has a “conflict of interest” because he is investigating the U.S. attorney scandal while also serving as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — was first raised three months ago by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA). It’s a complete distraction.

Schumer has no conflict of interest. The investigations led by the Senate and House Judiciary Committees are focused exclusively on the Executive Branch and not on Congress. Potential investigations into improper behavior by members of Congress would be conducted by the respective congressional ethics committees, as they should be.

Moreover, for many senators, the resolution is deeply hypocritical. None of those who previously attacked Schumer complained about the apparent “conflict of interest” that was raised in the 1990s, when then-Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-NY) was chairman of the Senate Whitewater Committee investigating President Clinton. As ThinkProgress previously noted, during that time, D’Amato was serving as national co-chairman of then-Sen. Bob Dole’s (R-KS) presidential campaign, as well as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

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Rather than working towards cleaning up the mess at the Department of Justice, Senator Mitch McConnell is making perfectly clear that he will continue to be a puppet for the administration, even if it means throwing his support behind corrupt and ineffective leaders.

I found this article over at Think Progress which highlights McConnell’s efforts to block a Senate vote of no confidence on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Think Progress reports:

If the Senate moves ahead with a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales next week as planned, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already made clear he will “tie up the Senate floor with all kinds of procedural mischief and introduce any number of amendments.”

It seems McConnell can’t agree with his Republican colleagues in the Senate very much at all these days (see “immigration reform,”which I will post more on soon). Think Progress also highlights what other Republicans have had to say about Gonzales.

Sen. John Sununu (R-NH): “The president should fire the attorney general and replace him as soon as possible with someone who can provide strong, aggressive leadership.”

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE): “The American people deserve an Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer of our country, whose honesty and capability are beyond question. Attorney General Gonzales can no longer meet this standard. He has failed this country. He has lost the moral authority to lead.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): “I think that out of loyalty to the president that that [resignation] would probably be the best thing that he could do.”

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR)- “For the Justice Department to be effective before the U.S. Senate, it would be helpful.”

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN): “I don’t believe that Gonzales has the type of leadership that the department needs.“

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Happy Friday!

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With more information coming to light about politically motivated firings of United States attorneys an increasingly bi-partisan groupof Senators are demanding that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resign.

Yesterday the national scandal moved closer to home as it was revealed that David Huber, the U.S. attorney for Louisville and Western Kentucky, was on the list of attorneys to be fired.

From the AP story

Huber, in a statement, said he was unaware of Sampson’s memo until a reporter brought it to his office yesterday morning. Huber said he has not been asked to resign.

“While I was surprised to be mentioned, I personally consider the list to be a minor distraction, at best,” Huber said. “As a matter of fact, I have never had at any time a conversation of any sort, including e-mail or written correspondence, with anyone in the Department of Justice about my job performance or being on any type of list — period.”

Turns out Mr. Huber once served as general counsel to Senator Mitch McConnell. I wonder if McConnell had to personally step in and save Mr. Huber’s job?

The Senate is poised to overwhelming pass a vote of no confidence on the Mr. Gonzales. Now the question is: will Senator Mitch McConnell do what’s right by following many of his Republican colleagues in calling on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign and supporting a vote of no confidence?

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