YOU GO PAT!!!

"I want testimony under oath. I am sick and tired of getting half-truths on this"

Patrick Leahy from the great state of Vermont did what I have been hoping a Democrat would do since 2001.....he grew a spine. Pat appeared on the Sunday talk show circuit this weekend and went on record to say that he will subpoena Bush’s aids to testify about their role in the growing scandal surrounding the firing of eight US attorneys. It is widely believed that should that happen Bush will evoke executive privilege to keep them from testifying. But when asked about the possibility of a compromise for private one on one meetings with former Bush attorney and Supreme Court nominee Harriet Meyers and presidential adviser Karl Rove, Leahy responded "I want testimony under oath. I am sick and tired of getting half-truths on this."

Pat, I couldn't agree with you more.

We need to know what is going on here. Gonzales claimed that the terminated attorneys were all fired for performance reasons, but members of Congress soon learned that all eight had received good performance reviews. Gonzales also said that the White House wasn’t involved. Then we found out they were, but that it was Harriet Meyers idea and hers alone. That is until we heard about a few emails that Karl Rove had written himself about the subject. As if it couldn’t get any worse, yesterday we learned from Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein that one of those attorneys who was fired just happened to be involved in the investigation of a close friend of republican Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who as you may recall pleaded guilty to accepting over two million dollars in bribes and is now serving an eight year sentence.

COME ON!!!! How many more trips around the damage control circle are we going to be subjected to before the administration and the Justice Department admit to this for what it is....a politically motivated attack on critics of the administration!!!! Did we not learn anything from the Scooter Libby trial? Speaking of which, could it be that Cheney had a role in this? If so certainly there would be some serious calls for his resignation as well.

Last week I called on Gonzales to testify under oath. There is no question that he must do that now, but that is no longer enough. Gonzales must resign or be fired. As for Rove and Meyers, I will reserve judgment until such time as they testify, I doubt they will, but let's just say I'm less than confident that they would be absolved from any wrong doing if they do.

To put it very bluntly, Gonzales may serve at the pleasure of the President, but the President serves at the pleasure of the people. I hope that Bush has finally learned the lesson of Rumsfeld and Brown, that loyalty to the President does not equal satisfaction with the American public.