Why the White House is afraid to fire Gonzales

As much as my eyes roll whenever I read the Wall Street Journal's blog -- due to their repeatedly evident 'America versus Democrats' theme -- they might actually have it right on why the White House is so reluctant to fire Alberto Gonzales.  While Bush might intend to show his manliness by not caving into Congress' demands, there is more to his resistance strategy than that.  Remember, if Gonzales is canned, that would set the stage for yet another controversial Attorney General confirmation process.

The Wall Street Journal blog reveals that Democrats on the Judiciary Committee would give extra scrutiny to any Bush Attorney General nominee that is from the Gonzales school of thought:

“But who would he be replaced with?” Leahy asked. “If it’s going to beanother person who is going to be really run by the White House, and ifthe White House is continued to be allowed to interfere with thecriminal justice system throughout this country, something that affectseverybody right down to the officer on the beat, then it does no good.”

And I am not making any excuses for the White House at all.  They failed miserably when nominating Alberto Gonzales for the job, and deserve the political mess that is now before them.  But when factoring in the weight of the political pendulum, Bush has very little reason to fire Gonzales.  If Gonzales is fired, then that would basically affirm the Democrats' current strategic advantage, which they would use to scrutinize the next Attorney General candidate -- assuming that Bush would nominate yet another unqualified crony.

Lastly, it is entirely irrelevant that Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are calling for Gonzales' ouster.  If Dick Cheney were running in 2008, then maybe Bush would follow his party's demands.  Though, let's face reality.  Bush is a lame duck president.  Most people in the White House will retire from politics when this is all over anyway.  All they are concerned about is their legacy, which very sadly they still compare to the Truman Administration.  They think that everything they do is grand, wise and will be respected by historians years from now.  So no, they will not fire Gonzales.  They will not change course in Iraq, either.

Comments

[George]

I think they will change course in Iraq and Bush will say something like this:
"This isnt a change of course. This is the course of change. This is part of the...the...ah, it's part of what's called war process. You move, you move from step to step. This is the next step. It's like Monopoly. I was on Baltic, Now we're moving to Connecticut. Eventually we'll be on Boardwalk. Just like Truman."

Ehehehe

[Chief Editor: Todd]

Hahaha!!!! Nice one, George. But as Bush said today, following GOP criticism of Gonzales, he is EVEN MORE CONFIDENT about keeping Gonzales. So...the more pressure there is on Bush to do one thing, he does the exact opposite!