This latest example of unethical or illegal practices at DoJ goes beyond Gonzales lies or failed memory and directly back to Bush's desk at the WH.
Not only did Bush evidently authorize Gonzales to subvert the process to get Ashcroft to approve the warrantless wiretapping from his hospital bed, but Bush later blocked at internal DoJ investigation by denying the necessary security clearance to the Office of Professional Responsibility (which was revealed at a hearing last year):
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US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee that...President Bush personally put an end to an internal Justice Department investigation into the role DOJ lawyers played in designing the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program. During a Department of Justice oversight hearing, committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) asked Gonzales why officials from the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility could not obtain necessary security clearances from the NSA. Gonzales told the panel that "the president of the United States makes the decision." DOJ officials said in May that the internal investigation had been dropped.
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchas...probe-into.php
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Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews.
Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe in April 2006 by taking the unusual step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0315nj1.htm
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Host ...I agree that there are numerous issues and/or actions by Bush/Cneney that warrant an impeachment inquiry, with this "abuse" being the latest. But as to your latest plea:
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....and maybe....just maybe, Americans.... 60 million of who voted yesterday to determine which contestants would stay to compete in the talent competition on the "American Idol" TV Show...or go,
will regain accountability and checks and balances of their government
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The fact remains, that neither a majority of the public or, more importantly, a majority of the Congress, have reached the conclusion that an impeachment inquiry is in the best interest of the country.
And unless or until even more compelling evidence of potential criminal behavior is uncovered, impeachment is just not gonna happen. We can argue whether that is right or wrong, but the fact is that it is a polical reality.
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In the meatime, for those who have forgotten the lies, ethical lapses, and other activities that have become what is without doubt the most scandalous six years in my lifetime, Slate has an "illustrated guide:
Having a hard time keeping track of all 10,000 GOP scandals? Between fired U.S. attorneys, deleted RNC e-mails, sexually harassed pages, outed CIA agents, and tortured Iraqi prisoners—not to mention the warrantless wiretapping, plum defense contracts, and golf junkets to Scotland—you could be forgiven for losing track of which congressman or Bush administration flunky did which shady thing. Renzi—now, was that the guy with the skeezy land deal? Or the woman Paul Wolfowitz promoted?
We're not saying that Democrats never do anything shady. (Cash-stuffed freezers come to mind.) But as the saying goes, with great power come great opportunities to screw up royally. And if your memory is as hazy as ours, you could probably use a handy refresher.
http://slate.com/features/2007/scand...candalmap.html
(or text version: http://www.slate.com/id/2165980/)