Re: Gonzales Resigns

So it’s not Chertoff — at least not yet. For now, Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general. It’s unclear why some in the admin were leaking Chertoff’s name as Gonzales’ replacement — when that happens, it’s usually part of the pre-cooked rollout of a nomination. One possibility is that the White House wants time to float the idea of Chertoff to see how he’d fare in confirmation hearings. And, as Mike Allen spells out on Politico.com, making Clement the acting AG gives Bush all kinds of time to decide how to proceed. Glenn Greenwald takes the analysis further here.