Gonzales on Hot Hot Seat

Updates below 1,2,3,4

Thursday morning. Attorney Generalissimo Alberto Gonzales is being grilled by a very heated Republican Arlen Specter.

Says Jeffry Toobin on CNN: “The Attorney General has GOT to hang on to the Republicans today and he’s NOT off to a good start.”

The show is on C-Span3, however the internet link is bollixed. Too many hits is my guess. [Update 1: I’ve got it streaming now.]

Update 2: Seems like KQED radio is broadcasting the hearings with a time-delay. At 9:20 or so the opening statements are being read…

Update 3: BlueState is live-blogging the hearings. I didn’t hear the disruptions he reports but I did hear Leahy admonishing the audience to behave.

CNN is showing clips of the grilling but it and the other cable channels still have a stash of murder-porn from Cho Seung-Hui and need to show it, bad.

Senator Feinstein is asking WHO is making these decisions? Three times yesterday you said that you “accepted” the decisions of the staff.

She is really blistered over his firing of Carol Lam in San Diego and is reading a list of her accomplishments. “No one ever talked to her, about any concerns!” Gonzales is replying, Feinstein is furiously silent.

It strikes me that Gonzales is Bush’s fraternal twin brother: amiable, un-curious, unthoughtful, willing to do what he perceives the powerful want…

Republican John Cornyn of Texas is softballing Gonzalez now and slides off onto unrelated matters, adding that Clinton fired all 90 USAttorneys and wasn’t questioned. (All US Attorneys are always replaced at the end of Presidential terms — at least in recent decades. What is contentious is firing them mid-term. Leahy just clarified this to Mr. Cornyn.)

Senator Feingold is not happy.

Gonzales recalls so little it seems to me he has a mental condition serious enough that he should be relieved of his duties in order to enter long term therapy.

Senator Schumer is not happy. He is bringing up Carol Lam. He and Feinstein are tag-teaming on Gonzales. ~Carol Lam has testified she was not aware of DOJ concerns about her performance. Kyle Sampson testified DOJ said nothing to Carol Lam. You, Mr. Attorney General, with a month to prepare for this hearing, say she was acutely aware of concerns about her. Who is telling the truth?~

Update 4: Kevin Drum reveals an anonymous letter from Concerned Justice Department Employees.

The list for proposed interns at the Justice Department was culled by political leanings. Full letter here (pdf).

More on the politicization of the Department of Justice to increase the number of voter fraud cases.

For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.

The administration intensified its efforts last year as President Bush’s popularity and Republican support eroded heading into a midterm battle for control of Congress, which the Democrats won.

McClatchy: Voter Fraud in GOP