In the Washington Post this morning there is an article which outlines how Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may have lied to Congress by stating that no civil liberties violations had occurred in the course of the FBI utilizing the PATRIOT Act, despite being furnished with a report that detailed several such violations.
It would appear that most of the civil liberties infractions that have been reported occurred due to procedural or clerical error. This does not excuse the infractions, but at least no malicious infractions have yet been cited.
Now for Gonzales to be prosecuted for lying to Congress it must be proven that he read the reports. This would seem to imply that the White House and the Justice Department will simply state that Gonzales didn’t see or read the reports. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stomach incompetence or ignorance as excuses for lying anymore. You can almost hear the choir now. “AG Gonzales didn’t read the report.” “AG Gonzales couldn’t read the report, because too much paper crosses his desk.”
I’m sorry but ignorance is no excuse and incompetence, while perhaps preventing you from being a liar, makes you incapable of handling your job. Guess what happens in the real world when you fail to read important reports and give (let’s assume unwittingly) false statements to the people that represent your boss. Let’s remember folks, while the Attorney General isn’t elected he is responsible to us the people at the end of the day, as if everyone in our government. You get fired. You get dragged before your supervisor and let go.
This isn’t a new refrain, but it’s time for Gonzales to go. Either he is a liar and should be prosecuted or he is incompetent and should be fired. Regardless there can be little doubt that he lacks either the ethical fortitude or the intellectual capacity to lead the legal battle in this War on Terror.
Will he be fired? Probably not. President Bush is loathe to go through a confirmation process with a Democratic Senate, but just because he doesn’t like how the game is played doesn’t mean it’s fair to the American people. We deserve competent and ethical leadership in this country. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has repeatedly shown, through the firing of US Attorneys, through his abysmal appearance on the Hill to explain said firings, and this most recent revelation that he is unfit to lead the Justice Department in these most treacherous of times.
Ignorance is no excuse. Incompetence is no explanation. I won’t go so far as I’m sure some of my blogging brethren will do to claim that Gonzales is a liar, but he is a managerial idiot and in the America I know if you grossly neglect the responsibilities of your job you get fired. Of course it’s proven true many times before that President Bush doesn’t comprehend the
[Alberto Gonzales] [FBI] [Congress]
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