Gonzales að tapa stuðningi Repúblíkanaflokksins

Þó forsetinn standi enn við bakið á Gonzales hefur hann hægt og bítandi verið að glata stuðningi annarra repúblíkana, þrír öldungadeildarþingmenn flokksins hafa lýst yfir efasemdum um heiðarleika hans og getu til að sitja áfram í embætti. Og sömu sögu er að segja af sumum hægrisinnuðum bloggsíðum hér vestra: Gonzales þarf að víkja.

Carpetbagger Report, sem hefur undanfarna viku varla skrifað um annað en Gonzales, vitnar í þrjá hægrisinnaða bloggara, Ed Morrisey á Captaings Quarters, Rick Moran á Right Wing Nuthouse og Jonah Goldberg hjá National Review. Þessi gagnrýni er enganveginn á jaðri flokksins, því Captains Quarters er eitt af flaggskipum "the right wing blogosphere".

Captains Quarters:

Have we had enough yet? I understand the argument that if we allow the Democrats to bounce Gonzales, they’ll just aim for more, but Gonzales made himself the target here with what looks like blatant deception. I don’t think we do ourselves any good by defending the serially changing stories coming out of Gonzales’ inept administration at Justice. One cannot support an Attorney General who misleads Congress, allows his staffers to mislead Congress, and deceives the American people, regardless of whether an R or a D follows his name or the majority control of Congress.

Right Wing Nut House:

I will brook no excuses by commenters that Gonzalez “misspoke,” or “forgot,” or “got a note from his mother” that gave him permission to lie, or other excuses from the ever dwindling number of Bush diehards who visit this site. He is the frickin’ Attorney General of the United States fer crissakes! If there is anybody in government who needs to tell the truth, it is the guy responsible for enforcing the laws of land.

Jonah Goldberg:

Some readers are cross with me for using the word “lied” in reference to Gonzales. Okay, he may simply have been deeply, deeply, confused, out of touch and unprepared to give a press conference which was supposed to put an end to the “scandal” and instead poured gasoline on it at a time when his boss, the President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief, had vastly more important things to deal with.

Þingmennirnir sem hafa lýst því yfir að Gonzales sé búinn að vera eru Chuck Hagel, sem er líka einn af forsetaframbjóðandum flokksins, Arlen Specter, sem er hæst setti repúblíkaninn í dómsmálanefnd öldungadeildarinnar og Lindsey Graham, sem líka situr í nefndinni. Skv AP:

Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Gonzales "does have a credibility problem. ... We govern with one currency, and that's trust. And that trust is all important. And when you lose or debase that currency, then you can't govern. And I think he's going to have some difficulties."

Hagel cited changing stories from the Justice Department about the circumstances for firing the eight U.S. attorneys. "I don't know if he got bad advice or if he was not involved in the day-to-day management. I don't know what the problem is, but he's got a problem. You cannot have the nation's chief law enforcement officer with a cloud hanging over his credibility," Hagel said.

Þetta er því ekki eitthvað "partisan" mál, nornaveiðar deomkrata gegn repúblíkönum. Skynsamari repúblíkanar gera sér grein fyrir því að það er ekki hægt að hafa dómsmálaráðherra eins og Gonzales.

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