why the "no confidence" in alberto gonzales -- a "sense of the senate" resolution -- matters. . .
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
first, the bad news -- no vote:
the resolution fell seven votes
short of being immune from coburn's
procedural take-down. . . so there
was not any "up or down" vote, today.
more bad news -- senator obama
was a no show. this, after his clearly
compelling testimony, in support of voter
rights, in front of the judiciary committee,
just two days after bradley scholzman lied
his face off (allegedly!), about supressing
minority votes, all while alberto gonzaels
blithely looked the other way (again, allegedly). . .
now -- the good news: seven republicans
voted with the democrats -- led by senator
specter, senators coleman, collins,
hagel, smith, snowe, and sununu(!).
and, the ugly:
sen. joseph "no-mentum"
lieberman voted with republicans,
to kill the up or down vote. . .
p a t h e t i c.
today, the full senate will likely be
stalled -- by republican-tom-coburn-led-
shenanigans (see the links below the
quoted opinion) from bringing to the floor
of the senate, for a vote -- a resolution
expressing "no confidence" in alberto gonzales
as attorney general of the united states.
the resolution is SJ Res. 14.
in any event, this new york
times editorial, makes plain why this
vote should matter to all americans -- even
senator tom coburn. . . click word-mark to
read the original, in full:
June 11, 2007
A Test of the Senate
The Senate has scheduled a no-confidence vote today on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. No one who has followed the news needs to be told why it is necessary. Mr. Gonzales is the Michael Brown of the Justice Department, smilingly presiding over incompetence, chaos and malfeasance, while President Bush insists that he is doing a heck of a job. Today’s vote should get the support not only of Democrats, but of every Republican senator concerned about the American justice system.
The list of Mr. Gonzales’s misdeeds is long and serious. The Justice Department has enormous power to put people in jail, destroy reputations and affect the outcomes of elections. It must enforce the law impartially, but Mr. Gonzales has allowed political partisanship to drive his department.
He appointed underqualified, ethically challenged ideologues, and let them run amok. Monica Goodling, a former top Gonzales aide, admitted that she crossed the line — and most likely federal law — by hiring lawyers for nonpolitical jobs based on their politics. The purge of nine United States attorneys last year was also clearly politically motivated. Talented, respected prosecutors were fired because they didn’t do the Republican Party’s bidding.
Mr. Gonzales’s response has been shockingly deficient. He claimed that he was not in the loop on the firings. That would have been extreme dereliction of duty, since the fired attorneys were nearly 10 percent of his top state-level prosecutors. But it now seems clear that he was not telling the truth when he said it, which does not make him look any better.
The Justice Department is in shambles. Top officials have left under a cloud and have not been replaced. Morale is said to be terrible. And the department’s credibility is shot. The public has every reason to suspect that if a United States attorney brings an indictment with political overtones — or fails to indict — the reason is politics, not the law.
Senator Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat who pushed for today’s resolution, rightly says that if senators voted their conscience, it would be unanimous. The vote is a test, in particular, for Republican senators who call themselves independent — like Arlen Specter, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe — and who will have to choose between the president and the public interest.
James Comey, a respected former deputy attorney general, testified that if prosecutors have been hired based on politics under Mr. Gonzales, “I don’t know that there’s any window you can go to to get the department’s reputation back.” A strong majority of the Senate voting no confidence in Mr. Gonzales is an important place to start.
now -- let us take a look at the
non-sensical amendments -- a bevy
of them, too -- thrown, as sand, into
the gearbox of senate joint resolution
number fourteen. all courtesy of tom
coburn, republican, out of oklahoma -- what
a complete tool this guy is!
the best anti-septic is sunshine. so,
just look at the pungent list of unrelated
amendments he has barfed-up. . . for example:
SEC. __. PEACE GARDEN PASS.
(a) Authorization.--
(1) IN GENERAL.--The Secretary, in consultation with the Director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, shall develop a travel document (referred to in this section as the ``Peace Garden Pass'') to allow citizens of the United States described in subsection (b) to travel to the International Peace Garden on the borders of the State of North Dakota and Manitoba, Canada (and to be readmitted into the United States).
(2) MAINTAINING BORDER SECURITY.--The Secretary shall take any appropriate measures to ensure that the Peace Garden Pass does not weaken border security or otherwise pose a threat to national security. . .
i won't bore you with any more of
the text of this dreck (but it is
linked below). . .
now, compare to the courtly work
underway -- in the resolution, and
the editorial -- above. . . sheesh.
okay -- here are the republican amendments:
| S7391 S7392 S7393 S7394 S7395 S7396 S7398 S7399 S7400 S7401 S7402 S7403 | S7404 S7405 S7406 S7407 S7408 S7409 S7410 S7411 S7412 S7413 S7414 |
so -- senator coburn -- in what
way, exactly, is this being faithful
to pursuing the business of "we,
the people"? do tell. . .
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