Cringeworthy Story of the Day

The headline on the Daily Beast is hilarious: “Fredo Speaks”

Cringeworthy indeed.
As soon as he is laying on a floor, despertately trying to apply a tourniquet at his knee so he doesn’t bleed out through his severed leg, THEN he can call himself a casualty of war. Until then, his use of the phrase reveals him to be an arrogant, self-important a$$wipe.

Gonzales is an incompetent boob. Can’t figure out what he did wrong or why no one respects him. A nice first step would be to stop characterizing himself as a victim or casualty of war.
I’m still waiting for Bush to issue a blanket pardon for Gonzales, Rummy, Cheney, Rice et al.

His political problems started with the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006, which grew into a firestorm that Mr. Gonzales said he never saw coming.

Not only is Gonzales a deceitful little weasel, he’s stupid too.

wow, where to begin… pathetic. Please, please, let him “recall” the answers to all the questions he evaded during hearings, so he can be charged with perjury. And what Paul D. said.

If there was only some way to appoint Gonzo as Blago’s defense attorney, than Gonzo would be employed and justice would finally be served.

The real victims are not the tortured, the millions of dead or displaced Iraqis, the Americans illegally spied upon without warrants. No, the real VICTIM is Gonzo and other officials like him who only face criticism for committing crimes and not prosecution. Mean while with straight faces we are prosecuting Taylor’s son in Miami for torture crimes committed in Liberia. And rejecting his defense that what he was doing was keeping his government from being over thrown and Liberia safe.

The reason why Gonzo gets away with making statement likes this is BECAUSE THERE IS NO ONE OR WAY TO STOP HIM. Cheney and Gonzo are practically begging someone to do something about their law breaking. So far no one is.

OT, kudos to Rep Davis for turning down Blago’s appointment offer. Even if it makes him look good to let us know, it makes him look good. Also reinforces the idea that Blago was out shopping for an AA to make it difficult for the dems.
.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/1356051,CST-NWS-sweet31.article
.
Also OT, seeing pictures of the Hay-Adams view of the White House makes you sort of wonder how the SS provides security for a place so right in the middle of the city (2nd picture down)
.
http://www.hayadams.com/washington-dc-hotel-gallery.php

This is sad: Bush, Miers, Gonzales: the intellectual powerhouse in the White House?

I’m sure he thinks of himself as a casualty, since Cheney, Addington, Yoo, and Rove are still walking free.

What he’s bitter about, and what he’s a casualty of, is the fact that cronyism only goes so far. Especially when you’re a low-level tool like Gonzales.

re: #9 kathy Says:
(Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 12:01 pm)
.
Also OT, seeing pictures of the Hay-Adams view of the White House makes you sort of wonder how the SS provides security for a place so right in the middle of the city (2nd picture down)
.
http://www.hayadams.com/washington-dc-hotel-gallery.php

.
Having gone to high school a couple of blocks past the White House, and run across a few security ‘staffers’ for the WH back in th’ day, I can say comfortably that you probably really, really don’t want to know about a lot of the security around that place. And the kind of thinking that goes on around protecting it. Even while joining in on the piling-on of the security when there’s some sort of breach of the WH grounds (recall such instances as the Piper Cub incursion), I also am thankful for the restraint exercised in not responding overly forcefully. They got way too many interesting systems on hand around there.

“What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?” he said during an interview Tuesday, offering his most extensive comments since leaving government.

.
KT I think that question deserves some answers.
.
I’ll start it off
.
1. His shameful attempt to get Ashcroft to reauthorize a secret government program while he was in a hospital bed.
.
NEXT!

Gonzo’s recallection abilities seem to be sufficiently in tact when it comes to recalling how badly he was treated. A whole book’s worth… What a putz.

Benen found perhaps the best assessment of Gonzales: Andrew Cohen, the editor and chief legal analyst for CBS News, wrote a primer last year that Gonzales may want to reference to help refresh his memory. By any reasonable standard, the Gonzales Era at the Justice Department is void of almost all redemptive qualities. He brought shame and disgrace to the Department because of his lack of independent judgment on some of the most vital legal issues of our time. And he brought chaos and confusion to the department because of his lack of respectable leadership over a cabinet-level department among the most important in the nation.

There should be a law against being allowed to write a book on any subject matter that you’ve refused to answer questions about to the criminal justice department, high court or American public for that matter. I’m looking at you Scott McClellan!

For an administration supposedly built on loyalty and complete leak-proof secrecy, ex-Bushies sure like to talk a lot once they’re out.

http://www.political-buzz.com/

henqiguai-
Thanks for reassuring me (I think).

Here’s another cringe worthy story of the day, with KT’s fellow “journalist” Mark Halperin getting his Bush love going with Matthews. “I think one thing he really believes in, which is he elevated the public imagination, the public sensibility, the notion of every life being precious, every spirit being important.”
.
Quite the performance. I’m sure Hewitt is proud. And I’m sure the millions of Iraqi refugees and untold numbers of Iraqi dead and maimed are reassured to know that the shrub finds every life precious.
.
Starbursts all around.

And yet another cringe worthy story: Roland Burris’s Monument to Me. The picture is to die for.

Here’s something that is truly good news for Blago. Fitzy’s case must be weak.
.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/fitzgerald-asks-for-more-time-on-blagojevich-indictment/?hp
.
Remember he’s innocent until proven guilty.

Andy says: “truly good news for Blago. Fitzy’s case must be weak.”
The end of that article says that Fitz needs more time because more people have come forward. Hard to know if that’s good news for Blago.

“What is it that I did that is so fundamentally wrong, that deserves this kind of response to my service?”
.
Let’s start with perverting the DOJ into a political tool to help enable the Bush Kleptocracy.
.
Curl up into a ball and die, Mr. Gonzalez.

Andy and Nibbly: I don’t know what it means. It may be significant that Indian businessman/fundraiser Raghuveer Nayak (AKA “Individual D” in the Fitzgerald complaint) was recently reported to be seeking immunity in return for cooperating with the investigation.
.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-blagojevich-nayakdec22,0,7892226.story
.
But just remember, whatever it means, it is bad for Obama. (snark)

Cliff, it may be that Abu G. really doesn’t know what he did wrong. He is probably among the minions who thought they took an oath to defend and protect Bush instead of the Constitution. Just like this piece of work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlSIwJgX5J4

I don’t know if I said this here but if I have well you just gotta listen again. Blago’s lawyer is the same guy who got R.Kelly off. The same R Kelly who everybody and their mama saw footage of him peeing on some underage girls from videos he himself made that someone stole and distributed. The same RKelly that was so guilty that Dave Chapelle did this great parody of one of his songs.
.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/863bec4261/chapelle-show-rkelly-piss-on-you-from-nas
.
This ain’t gonna be an easy win for Fitzgerald. And lest we forget, he got his street cred for prosecuting Scooter Libby but he never did prosecute anyone for outing Valerie Plame, he had to get Libby on perjury charges. He ain’t exactly Superman.

BTW
.
Why is everybody making a big deal about Burris’ cemetary monument? I have seen a LOT WORSE is many of the cemetaries I have had the unfortunate pleasure of visiting. Besides that its for him AND his wife. Anybody here feel like its egregious of him to have bought such a monument?

sgw, how many of the monuments you have seen have been done by the monumentee himself?

wvng – Gonzalez is still on my list of people who I hope die of cancer.

Cliff, as awful as that is, I don’t disagree he deserves it. And it would be apt – he and his ilk are a cancer on our Constitution.

sgw: I think he’s guilty of poor taste. (Cuz it’s ugly.)

wvng
.
Well I guess in a way a lot of them because most of the monuments are bought in advance to house the bodies of whole family units.
.
nibbly
.
It ain’t cute but then again I don’t really expect to see anything in a cemetary that will make me smile. But people are throwing around words like arrogant and egotistical and I just don’t think a cemetary monument gives us that much insight into a person’s personality or soul. Of course if he had some gratuituous bling bling inserted all over the monument I might change my mind.

sgw: Well, as I mentioned last night, this guy’s “clean” reputation may just come from flying under the radar for so long. Now he has thrust himself into the national limelight, and people will be digging up all sorts of interesting information about him. The cemetery thing is just low-hanging fruit. Fair? It’s politics, baby.

Benen taking on a common swampland comment theme:
.
Which is why it bugs me that there are no consequences for pundits who are consistently misguided. Using Ezra’s analogy, imagine a sports commentator whose predictions are always wrong, whose rumors never pan out, and whose observations aren’t based on reality. After a while, one would hope, the audience would stop taking that commentator seriously, and he/she would go away.
.
But that rarely happens with political pundits. It’s annoying.
.
He is still being too nice to bring up the deliberately wrong pundit/journalist flogging a lie. But it is a good post.

nibbly
.
I must say that his invocation of race into the situation today after Bobby Rush went all 60s black panther yesterday has knocked quite a bit of luster off of him in my eyes.
.
But having said that if the best they can come up with is a monument that they guy legally paid for thats going to house not just him but his wife who according to the monument has a phd I am not all that moved.

KT:
_
Thank you so much for responding to commentary!

Frank Spiekerman must have REALLY been an ass hole!
.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/1/987463_922d2d16aa.jpg

sgw: And it begins:
http://www.propublica.org/article/in-90s-burris-sought-death-penalty-for-innocent-man-1231
As Atty General, Burris sought death penalty for innocent man.

nibbly
.
I already saw that. But I would note the innocent guy had been convicted twice by a jury of his peers.

That’s a very encouraging article. I had no idea karma could have such an immediate impact.
.
Gonzales had what, a month to prepare for his last round of Senatetestimony and was given many of the questions in advance, and he still came up with 75-100 ‘I don’t know’ responses. Does he expect to be hired as a corporate spokesperson?
.
Gonzales filled the Justice Department with Regent University graduates, of which Monica Goodling represents the best and brightest. After her testimony, does Gonzales expect to be hired as the managing partner of a law office?
.
BTW, Fitzgerald convicted former Republican Governor George Ryan. IANAL, but that seemed to be a very difficult case.

queencersei wrote: ‘I’m still waiting for Bush to issue a blanket pardon for Gonzales, Rummy, Cheney, Rice et al.’.
.
Pardons seem likely. Gonzales, Rice, Cheney, and others are in serious legal jeopardy — if a prosecutor can be found that still believes that this is a nation of laws and that crimes must be punished.
.
It will be interesting to see how the media reacts to the pardons. Remember, accepting a presidential pardon is an admission of guilt (see Burdick v. United_States).
.
Unfortunately, in the same way that it’s unlikely that a prosecutor will have the guts to indict them, it’s just as unlikely that the media will confront them with the implication of their acceptance of Bush’s pardons.
.