WILL GONZALEZ BE THE RAT THAT LEADS US TO THE BLOOD TRAILS?

DIGGING DEEPER
By Ivan G. Goldman

This Alberto Gonzalez character – a shameless wretch who perfectly fits the role of chief law enforcement officer for this administration -- would, under normal circumstances, have already been thrown into the street with his belongings in a cardboard box. After all, he’s been caught lying blatantly and fluidly to Congress, therefore drawing way too much heat on the deluded sleazeballs and sociopaths with whom he consorts. The next time he goes up the Hill to testify -- and Cabinet members can’t hide behind executive privilege -- it won’t require much labor for Democrats to compare the transcripts of his previous testimony (“I would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney position for political reasons,” blah, blah, blah) with the text of those damning emails.

So why hasn’t the White House made a patsy out of him and tossed him out? All they have to do is leak it around that Gonzalez lost his moorings and though he did so with the best of intentions, committed these atrocities all on his own. And Gonzalez, following the usual pattern, would then tell us he wants to spend more time with his family. That's that.

Yet he remains in the fold. Could it be that behind the White House gates, the chief swine are running scared? Fearful he’ll spill what he knows about the inner workings of the Dark Side? Maybe he's got so much on them they can’t afford to keep him and they can’t afford to have him out there spilling his guts.

The longer Gonzalez hangs around, the more likely that’s the case. That would mean he’s already led them to believe they can't count on him to behave like that guy who apologized to Cheney for getting shot in the face. He may be hinting that if they hang him out there alone he'll finger others – perhaps even members of the untouchable troika – Bush, Cheney, and Rove. Scooter Libby, counting on a pardon, didn’t take them down. Gonzalez might have other ideas.

The Democratic committee chairs in the Congress have barely begun sifting through the vileness and criminality of this administration. Armed with the power of subpoena, they’re going to find lots, lots more. For all we know, Gonzalez is a short cut to bigger cases, to a pattern of felonies around the globe. After all, he fired prosecutors who were exposing Republican crimes.

This could unlock the room where they keep the evidence of fixed contracts, payoffs, traded favors, war profiteering, body parts. We’re in a race to see whether these cowardly thugs who stole our country can reach January '09 before Congress finds the blood trails. At some point they'll begin turning on one another. It’s going to be an interesting couple of years, all right. Yet it’s impossible to enjoy them while people are still dying in Iraq.

To let these schmucks pursue their madness overseas in the midst of these revelations is crazy. It’s like letting some deranged nut wearing a cape and no pants perform heart surgery on one of your family members while he's also having phone sex with a congressional page.