Will one of George Bush's school chums become Secretary of Homeland Security?

There was a time when conservative Republicans claimed to stand for professionalism, accountability and competence in government (not always accurately, but they usually claimed it).

That was before the Bush administration started hiring the president's old college drinking buddies or their cousins to fill important jobs.

The buzz in Washington today is that the incompetent Alberto Gonzales will be replaced as attorney general by the incompetent Michael Chertoff, who will be replaced as homeland security secretary by Clay Johnson III (left), whose resume includes his having attended both prep school and college with George W. Bush.

Can you imagine how this stuff must embarrass Bush's old man, who, for all his faults, tended to surround himself with professionals when he was in the White House?

OUT ON HIS ASS

Alberto Gonzales has resigned as U.S. attorney general.

Gonzo's still hanging on

Well, it's Friday night, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales hasn't yet resigned, despite my prediction of a few days ago that he would have bowed out by now.

But, hey, he can't possibly survive through the remainder of George Bush's presidency, right? I mean, really?

Is Bush afraid to fire Gonzo?

Time magazine says he is, but The Rascal still expects that Gonzales soon will be gone.

Gonzo waves goodbye

The Rascal has learned -- well, actually it's an inescapable conclusion based on intensive study of all the factors involved -- that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will resign within the next 96 hours.

Remember where you heard it.

Gonzo's situation is simply untenable. His web of lies is too much of a tangle to straighten out. Virtually everybody recognizes this fact. Consequently, all but the most buttheaded of Republican right-wingers want him out.

The man is saddled with the distinction as the worst attorney general in American history. Nothing's going to change that.

He's gone by Friday night.

Newtie disses Gonzo

Gingrich says Bush's attorney general is "a liability for the United States of America."

See it here.

5...4...3...2...1...Blast off!

If the American system of law is to remain legitimate and worthy of respect, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should be removed from office -- and perhaps prosecuted for high crimes.

J'accuse!

Turnabout is fair play.

A few weeks ago, John McCain accused The Rascal of illegal behavior (unjustly, I might add).

Well, I'm here today to accuse the senior senator from Arizona of his own illegality. On Tuesday of this week, McCain apparently committed a blatant violation of federal criminal law.

Accordingly, I hereby call upon Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (Oh, God, I forgot that that incompetent little hack is still running the Justice Department) to take appropriate action against McCain.

Or am I going to have to make a citizen's arrest?

UPDATE: Looks like one of McCain's pals also has run afoul of the law.

Fredo quitting tonight?

John Aravosis at AmericaBlog says the buzz in D.C. is that Alberto Gonzales might resign tonight.

If so, Bush's choice for a successor will have to pass muster in a Democratic-controlled Senate, which will be disinclined to approve another stooge like Fredo.

And, of course, a truly independent attorney general could mean big trouble for the administration, what with all of its ethically challenged employees.

Forget Prosecutorgate; this is far worse

The stench arising from issues raised by former Acting Attorney General James Comey in his testimony Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee is becoming increasingly noticeable throughout official Washington and across the fruited plain.

The Rascal mentioned this matter yesterday in this post. Today, even the Washington Post, a previously reliable defender of Bush administration prerogatives, is sitting up and taking notice.

What we have here, folks, is the possibility that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other officials in the Bush administration, perhaps the president himself, deliberately and willfully committed crimes. This goes way beyond the unseemly manner in which Gonzales and company cashiered eight federal prosecutors.

Here we have a scandal in which former Attorney General John Ashcroft, ordinarily no hero in my book, is one of the good guys.

Paul Kiel over at TPM Muckraker has a good summary of the whole matter right here.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald has more to say on this issue.

UPDATE II: The New York Times also has this editorial.

UPDATE III: Legal whiz Jonathon Turley sees an impeachable offense in this stuff. Here's the video of his appearance on Keith Olbermann's program.

Will this include the Rockford guy?

Two of the U.S. attorneys whose dismissals from their jobs are part of what's become known as the Prosecutorgate scandal told the Seatlle Times on Wednesday that they expect criminal charges to be brought against certain Justice Department officials.

But apparently neither John McKay of Washington state nor David Iglesias of New Mexico mentioned Rockford native Michael Elston, one of the DOJ officials embroiled in the scandal. Background on Elston's role can be found in this piece and through various links therein.

By the way, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will testify on the matter today before the House Judiciary Committee.

UPDATE: The New York Times reports this morning that Gonzales thinks he'll survive the scandal.

WaPo scribe calls Rockford guy "infamous"

Washington Post columnist Andrew Cohen has written a piece about how a group of "concerned Department of Justice employees" has blasted department hot-shot Michael Elston, a Rockford native, for his excessive ideological zeal.

Elston, you'll recall, has been implicated in the Prosecutorgate scandal, which has left Attorney General Alberto Gonzales hanging onto his job by a thread, with only President Bush still supporting him.

Several federal prosecutors have suggested that Elston might have criminally obstructed justice by trying to intimidate a couple of the U.S. attorneys who got canned last year by the Bush administration.

The Rascal's on a mission

Posting here will be light over the next few days as I head off to Springfield to impart a bit of wisdom to the fine folks who make the laws in this state.

Upon my return, we'll have plenty to talk about.

Perhaps Alberto Gonzales will have resigned by then. Maybe Karl Rove will have overcome his fear of Sheryl Crow. And the good burghers of Belvidere might have figured a way to recover from their self-inflicted wounds with respect to public education.

I told you this was going to be fun

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales seems not to be doing himself much good with his testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

One Republican member of the panel declared that Gonzales should resign, and CNN is reporting that White House officials are greatly dismayed at the AG's performance.

Why doesn't the Bush administration cut its losses here and show the man to the door? After all, most Americans want him out, and that situation is not likely to change unless he suddenly comes up with a cure for cancer or singlehandedly captures Osama bin Laden.

But then, even if Gonzales quits, the fuss over Prosecutorgate probably isn't going to just disappear.

Recap of Rockford angle in Prosecutorgate

On the occasion of today's testimony by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation of the Bush administration's sacking of eight federal prosecutors, The Rascal offers a little background on the Rockford angle in this case.

Rockford native Michael Elston, a big shot in the Justice Department, allegedly intimidated at least one of the fired prosecutors by warning of unspecified retribution if the guy made a fuss about his dismissal.

Here's a good background piece on the matter, including suggestions by several of the sacked prosecutors that Elston might have committed a crime if the allegation of intimidation is true.

This should be fun

U.S. Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales testifies today before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the matter of the Bush administration's questionable dismissals of eight federal prosecutors, an issue that most Americans consider worthy of investigation, despite arguments to the contrary from die-hard supporters of the White House gang.

Madison blogger Griper Blade offers some background.

UPDATE: Dick Durbin gives Gonzales some pushback when the attorney general says criticism of him is criticism of dedicated career staffers in the Justice Department. See the video here.