Oh, I am so relieved..Glenn Fine says it was gross incompetence and dereliction of duty....instead of just another criminal conspiracy....

OK, my comment was just going to observe that Gonzales is like that Hogan's Heroes character, Sargent Schultz, "I see nothing. Nu-u-u-thing!"

But that would be unfairly letting Gone-z0 off the hook. The fact of the matter is he expanded her powers of hire/fire dramatically through an 'unpublished' (read 'secret') memo. From Wikipedia:

" Goodling's authority over hiring expanded significantly in March 2006, when Gonzales signed an unpublished order delegating to Goodling and Kyle Sampson, his then chief of staff, the power to appoint or dismiss all department political appointees besides United States attorneys (who are appointed by the President). The delegation included authority over interim United States attorneys (who are appointed by the Attorney General) and heads of the divisions that handle civil rights, public corruption, environmental crimes and other matters. "

Also, from the same Wiki article:
" Goodling worked alongside Tim Griffin as an opposition researcher for the Republican National Committee during the 2000 presidential campaign. " - that's as partisan a position possible even for somebody who's job is completely in the party, not the government.

Finally, Goodling's title at the time was White House Liaison. Even putting aside the issue of partisanship, Gonzales should have had an affirmative duty to maintain the independence of the Department of Justice. There was an impropriety in just giving that much power to someone with close ties to the administration. No way can you say that Gonzales, with his own ties to George W. Bush, didn't know exactly what he was doing.

The Sgt. Schultz defense just doesn't cut it here.

Gonzo, makes Mulkasey look good; who makes Ed Meese look good; who makes John Ashcroft look good. Republican's have a long reputation of putting party toting flakes in the Justice Department, who all brush under the rug, the criminal crap their administrations are involved in!

Speaking of the DoJ, has anybody been checking what the 90+ US Attys been doing who WEREN'T fired for insufficient loyalty to the GOPuke patrons and benefactors have been up to lately?

So ask yourself this: If Gonzales was unaware, why? Why do you assume it was incompetence? Couldn't it have on purpose? Think about it! On purpose. A lot like those mysterious people Wexler asked him about in the hearings: 'a group of people'. 'A national secret'. What if that 'group of people' told him not to know. Wouldn't that be as plausible as him just not knowing without having reason?

I want to remind everyone about a conversation that occurred between Gonzales and Gooding in she testimony she gave...can't remember which - the senate or house, but she stated it made her "uncomfortable" in nature. The meat and potatoes are in that conversation...because he did know and was part of the mission to place political minded attorneys all over the Justice department.

The question that should be asked is,

Who promoted her and others?

Now with that said, I still want to direct people to Gonzales work in Texas. That needs to be more investigated...and compared with what and how he was functioning as AG.

Drv,

Out of curiosity, what more could Fine have done? You say he took gonzo's word at face value. But it's apparent from his senate testimony that he didn't.

Well, from the clip above all I get is that Gonzalez said "He did not know ... he did not know ..." over and over again. I didn't hear of any corroboration. Perhaps the full testimony had some. If so, then I'm remiss for not listening to it all. But the point stands that he gave Goodling unprecedented power to make these hiring decisions with (apparently) no checks and balances on it. Did Fine ask why Gonzalez did that? Did the WH have anything to do with that decision?