August 27, 2007: Gonzales resigned effective September 17th
Now Congress needs to do a few things:
1. Refuse to confirm a new AG until the White House complies with all subpoenas [1]
2. Recognize what the threat of impeachment [2] achieved in the case of Gonzo
3. Start impeaching Cheney [3] ASAP
10:30 a.m. - CNN is chatting about torture and lie supporter Michael "Hurricane Katrina" Chertoff [4] as a possible replacement. Bush should be impeached for such a proposal.
10:32 a.m. - Gonzo says he will quit September 17th. Let's be clear on one thing: the Justice Dept. will be better off without an AG than with this one. There is no deadline for replacing him. The confirmation process is an opportunity to force the White House to comply with a few laws. Gonzales did not say why he is quitting. I expected him to say he wanted to spend more time with his family.
As Greenwald has been blogging on [5], Bush may try to leave an interim AG in place indefinitely or more directly make a recess appointment - either way, an action building yet further the case for the urgency of impeachment. Meanwhile, Gonzales does not recall [6] whether he resigned. A former federal prosecutor says [7] this won't save Bush.
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Please ask your Congress Member to cosponsor H. Res. 589 [8] to begin impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The bill, sponsored by Congressman Jay Inslee, has the following cosponsors: Xavier Becerra, Michael Arcuri, Ben Chandler, Dennis Moore, Bruce Braley, Tom Udall, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, Hank Johnson, Steve Cohen, Keith Ellison, David Wu, Yvette Clarke, Darlene Hooley, Betty McCollum, Timothy Bishop, Barney Frank, Carolyn Maloney, Ed Perlmutter, Tammy Baldwin, Shelley Berkley, Raul Grijalva, Ed Pastor, Ellen Tauscher, Rush Holt, Jim McGovern, Gary Ackerman, Bill Pascrell, Sam Farr, Danny Davis, Bob Filner.
FULL TEXT OF THE BILL:
RESOLUTION
Directing the Committee on the Judiciary to investigate whether Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States, should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary shall investigate fully whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to impeach Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.
SPEECH OF HON. JAY INSLEE OF WASHINGTON IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2007
Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, I rise today with several of my colleagues to introduce a resolution that would require that the Judiciary Committee initiate an impeachment investigation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. I have introduced this resolution only after careful consideration and exercising a great deal of caution.
Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper No. 66 stated, "the powers relating to impeachments are ..... an essential check in the hands of that body upon the encroachments of the executive." The "encroachments" made by this Attorney General subvert several core constitutional values.
I believe that it is clear the Attorney General was involved in the decisions to fire several U.S. Attorneys for not pursuing public corruption cases based on partisan political factors. I also believe that the Attorney General has made false or misleading statements to Congress in order to minimize his role in the warrantless surveillance program, the U.S. Attorney firings, and to otherwise obstruct congressional investigations.
Our judicial system must operate outside of the political process in order to preserve justice. The American people deserve an independent Justice Department that is not controlled by the political strategists at the White House. Gonzales' lack of candor before Congress perverts and undermines the ability of Congress to trust assurances made by the executive branch and it also retards Congress' ability to carry out its constitutionally mandated functions.
Based on the facts we know today, I believe that an investigation will reveal that the level of malfeasance of the Attorney General is impeachable. With the President showing no sign of replacing the Attorney General, Congress must assert itself and remove him from office. His removal is essential to preserve the strength of the Congress and to send the clear unambiguous message to future Attorneys General that the politicization of prosecutions and the U.S. Attorneys across the country is a repugnant degradation of the law.