GONZALES HEARINGS POSTPONED OVER VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTINGS: WHY NO MAJOR MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE CONSERVATIVE LETTER TO BUSH?

Washington D.C.--This is an appropriate move by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Attorney General Gonzales will be busy in his involvement in the investigations of the rampage, and it will create more stress and tension within him and the White House having to wait two-more days. See how good things come out of the bad? This was an interesting remark by Gonzales's spokesperson at the Justice Department:

Justice Department spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said: "The attorney general would like to testify as soon as possible. But out of respect for the family members impacted by this horrific tragedy he will defer to the chairman's judgment on when to hold the hearing." ...A half-dozen Republicans have joined numerous Democrats in calling for Gonzales to resign over how the firing of the federal prosecutors was handled. (Washington Post, 04.17.2007)

In-other-words, they're saying "you got us on this one, and we're only accepting this setback because of the public would see us as inhuman as we really are if we pressed this one." Something like that. Crocodile-tears and grins for all! Imagine the pressure these people in the Bush administration are dealing-with. Imagine how it felt when you sat by your phone when you thought you were going to be laid-off or fired for whatever at your job.

Now, magnify this several-hundred times--you're possibly going to jail for the hundreds-of-crimes you know you committed while holding public office. It's pretty hard to be in this much trouble, besides maybe being Benedict Arnold, John Wilkes Booth when he was on-the-run from Union troops in Virginia, or an exposed Soviet mole during the Cold War. It takes incredible effort to be in this much trouble. As a criminal, you want to get your story and your explanations out there, and you want the testimonies to be over quickly. But at least they have time to get their stories straight.

The problem is: when you know you've violated as many laws as they have, it's only going to take one smoking-gun memo, tape, e-mail, voice-mail...you get the picture. We've already got several of those "guns," but it was the former-GOP majority that obstructed justice for the president and his cabinet for four very-long years. Justice has been subverted for a long-time. The only thing that's good about all of this is that the Bush White House won't even get their usual news white-out on Iraq and the Gonzales hearings, just a zero-sum gain.Yesterday, there was a lot of bloviating at the White House press conference:

Q Has the White House received a letter from some conservatives asking for Gonzales's resignation? Has the President seen that?

MS. PERINO: Not that I'm aware of. Go ahead, Les. [Ed.-the topic is briefly switched to questions and comments on the Duke university scandal, Paul Wolfowitz's tenure at the World Bank, and more questions about the US Attorney firings.]

Q Follow up on Terry's question about the letter from conservatives. And whether you know any specifics on this letter or not, I'm just wondering, in general --

MS. PERINO: I've not seen one.

Q In general, though, when the President receives a letter like this from, in this case, conservatives who include longtime supporters of the President, expressing concern and criticism and calling for Gonzales to step down, does a letter like that get the President's attention more than other letters, given the fact that they are long-time supporters?

MS. PERINO: A lot of things come across the President's desk. Usually in a case like that, if the letter didn't make it directly to him to look at, then one of the senior staff members would have brought it to his attention, sure.

Q The phone call -- did he speak with Gonzales by phone or face-to-face?

MS. PERINO: By phone, by phone this morning.

Q Okay. Thank you. (Whitehouse.gov, 04.16.2007)

This letter from prominent conservatives--many of them past-supporters of the president--is getting virtually no coverage whatsoever in the mainstream media. It isn't salient, and it's being backgrounded. It's not at yahoo, or any of the major news-ports as a major headline. You don't need a Virginia Tech-sized event to do this, just allies who own nearly all of the nation's news-outlets and wire services. But Time magazine is at least doing their marginal-best, and have done a pretty good story on it yesterday.

The group, ostensibly called "the American Freedom Agenda" can be seen as a last-shot for many mainstream conservatives (not traditional ones) at salvaging what's left of their ideology and credibility after having thrown-in their lot with President Bush and his cabinet. Where were they in the Fall of 2002 during the mad-dash to pass the Patriot Act, thus rolling-back all of our rights? Where have they been up-to-now? If the results of the November 2006 midterms had preserved their majorities in Congress, it's doubtful we'd be hearing and reading such high-flown rhetoric about preserving our freedoms and credibility as a nation--they missed that boat in 2000, and the immediate aftermath of September 11th, 2001.

The two-page letter, written on stationery of the American Freedom Agenda, a recently formed body designed to promote conservative legal principles, is blunt. Addressed to both Bush and Gonzales, it goes well beyond the U.S. attorneys controversy and details other alleged failings by Gonzales. "Mr. Gonzales has presided over an unprecedented crippling of the Constitution's time-honored checks and balances," it declares. "He has brought rule of law into disrepute, and debased honesty as the coin of the realm." Alluding to ongoing scandal, it notes: "He has engendered the suspicion that partisan politics trumps evenhanded law enforcement in the Department of Justice." ...It is the first public demand by a group of conservatives for Gonzales' firing. (Time.com, 04.16.2007)

Like I wrote previously--this is pretty belated, and it comes-off more as just simple damage control once things went truly sour for the signees. Otherwise, President Bush would be their hero, but nobody likes a loser in America. Especially when one got them there, aided in the looting of the public-funds, and now suspect that they're going to go down with him if they don't start cooperating and changing their tunes. Power only concedes to threats (including ones backed-up by the potential for violence) and demands, a historical-truth in human social reality. It doesn't matter if any us of like it or not, it's an objective-truth unconnected to human semantics and trivialities.


The Washington Post Today: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601077.html

Whitehouse.gov Yesterday:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070416-1.html

Time Yesterday on the American Freedom Agenda letter: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1610738,00.html