talk left -- on gonzales and the u.s. attorneys -- spot-on!

while everything the new york
times has to say about the scant
experience of people proposed
for high-ranking DoJ jobs is
true -- in its breathlessnes,
it also [unwittingly] undermines
the central lesson of the gonzales
"it was not political" firings-lie.

the issue is not rachel brand's lack
of experience -- it is gonzales' lies
about how he was choosing people like her.

it is the lie that matters.

so -- i think talk left has perhaps
the best, clearest, most digestible
piece i've seen this morning, about
what alberto gonzales' endless
dissembling really means to the u.s.
attorneys' scandal -- go read it all,
but here are the money quotes:

". . .Those of us who toil in the federal courts, particularly in criminal cases, know how it works. The job of U.S. Attorney is a political plum. It's awarded based on recommendations from the district's senators, it almost exclusively goes to a member of the President's party and very often it's based on the person's contributions, including fundraising efforts, to the successful presidential candidate.

That's the way the system has always worked for both parties. The position of U.S. Attorney is an administrative job -- very few of them actually try cases. . ."

now, that is really first-rate. no over-the-
top-hyperbole, just solid, reality-based-thinking.
it is smart, savvy, and offered from a
deeply-experienced, inside-the-court-
room-trial-lawyer perspective.

one (at least i) just cannot find this
sort of perspective offered (almost)
anywhere at all, in the dead-tree media.

she is dead-on -- i've seen no one make
the case for his departure more simply under-
standable to the non-lawyer, non-litigator,
other 99 percent of america watching this unfold.

". . .Alberto Gonzalez chose to pretend
otherwise. I hope it sinks him. . ."

i think it will. but i think it is also
wider, and now deeper, than just gonzales.

i am hopeful that a long line of questioning
at his hearing on tuesday follows what appears
to be endemic violations of the hatch act at
all levels of his department, the department
of justice.

then, i am hopeful that the wider, "five million
missing e-mails once on R.N.C. servers" issue
leads to a series of hearings on violations of
the presidential records act, and perhaps a
reopened fitzgerald investigation of karl
rove and dick cheney -- and their actual,
as opposed to proffered, roles in the CIA leak case. . .

and so, i am hopeful. perhaps for
the first time in more than a year. .

". . .hope is a good thing. . .
maybe it is the best of all things. . ."

-- the shawshank redemption