Biden: Only a 'smoking gun' will oust Attorney General Gonzales

[sabra]

Source: Bloomberg News

Embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales won’t lose his job unless lawmakers uncover new evidence against him, Senator Joseph Biden said.

Gonzales has “stayed too long,” though “short of us finding a smoking gun, it looks to me like he’s there for a little while longer,” Biden, a Delaware Democrat who is running for his party’s presidential nomination, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” scheduled to air today.

Biden serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has questioned Gonzales about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year and his role in a terrorist surveillance program. President George W. Bush has resisted calls from at least a dozen Republican and Democratic lawmakers for Gonzales to step down.


Read more: http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070803/NEWS/70803036

[liberal N proud]

1. In other words, Congress wimps out AGAIN

[theHandpuppet]

31. That's it in a nutshell

Same old spineless crap we've all come to know all so well.

[BOSSHOG]

2. The whole bush administration is a smoking gun

Too Many Americans can not see the forest for the trees.

ITS ALMOST AS IF IT WERE PLANNED!

[Gman]

3. It's hot, it's smoking and it's there somewhere

Just find it, Mr. Biden.

[RogueBandit]

4. Getting sick of this

Smoking gun? These witnesses have said nothing, lied, or invoked priviledges they don't actually have. Isn't that a smoking fu*king gun?

Violence is going to happen if something isn't actually done soon. Oh, I forgot...it's already begun just not here (yet).

[SteppingRazor]

5. WHAT? He has demonstrably committed purjury!

All you need is a couple 10 second video clips run back to back and you can understand that much. What the fuck is the problem with these people?

[rox63]

6. So he's saying that Gonzo would have to be caught with a

dead girl or live boy?

[merwin]

14. He said smoking gun, not smoking pole

:)

[humbled_opinion]

34. Not a smoking pole... Smoking the pole... thats better... lol n/t

[rudy23]

7. Like there haven't been smoking guns left and right on this?

I'm convinced more than ever that Democrats are complicit in this whole song and dance. All the Bush lawbreaking--I have no other choice than to believe that Democrats in DC approve of it.

[rcdean]

8. He's absolutely right.

You can't convict somebody without rock solid evidence that would convince a jury beyond any reasonable doubt.

You should never indict somebody without the intellectually honest expectation of being able to convict.

The moron, Gonzo, has cleverly obfuscated every statement he's made, so perjury becomes impossible to prove. If you don't believe that, then get specific. Show us the exact words he used--including any "clarifications"--and what exact facts contravene them.

We bitch and complain about having to jump through these hoops. But if the situation were reversed, we'd be glad for them.

I am still confident we'll be able eventually to nail this little prick, though.

[Cha]

23. How do you think that will

happen? "The Smoking Gun" is there but still needs to be discovered?

[gasperc]

they may impeach but conviction seems out

they have probably counted the votes and they can't get to 67. So they seem to be hesitant to pull the trigger on impeaching Gonzales, they must figure on blowback if they try to impeach and fail to convict. I disagree from this thinking, I think the investigations through impeachment proceedings will continue to rachet up the pressure on Bush especially during September when he veto's every damn bill that hits his desk. So, maybe, congress is keeping it's cards close to it's chest, we'll see.

[kenfrequed]

9. Biden is such a tough talking wuss

He stands up to his own party on a regular basis with the only possible risk is that Faux News might grant him Liberman's vaunted old position as 'pet democrat.'

This guy needs to show the aggressiveness and pushiness he used in that phoney CNN debate and point it at the Bush administration. I can't believe he actually is polling at 4%.

[youngdem]

10. And he means a LITERAL smoking gun

And Cheney has proven NOT EVEN SHOOTING SOMEONE IN THE FACE will get you thrown out of the administration.

For that, you have to drown a whole city.

[Mme. Defarge]

12. Or totally *#@& up a war

that was "won" in the first place!

[DrDan]

11. well, that being the case, the Dems must keep him

tied to the administration and the Repugs. Need to color them corrupted as much as possible. We cannot let this thing slide into the shadows.

[acmavm]

13. Biden's so full of shit. He's committed so many crimes and lied so many

times that we don't need any 'smoking gun'.

There is something seriously wrong here. At no time in the history of this country would the elected representatives of the people tolerate and condone this shit. Not fucking EVER.

Illegal spying, secret renditions to countries that torture, torturing prisoners ourselves (our military, not you and me), lying to start a damn war for Heaven's sake, no-bid contracts, secret energy meetings, supreme court nominees lying at their confirmation hearings, the giving of oneself control over all three brances of government if someone hiccups too loud, threatened confiscation of our property, the 'executive privilege' excuse being used for EVERYTHING, KKKarl rove committing treasonous acts and getting away with it. Hell, I could go on all night.

Why the hell are they not helping us? Why aren't they doing what they were elected to do? They are as crooked and slimey as the bush administration. We desperately need a 'saviour' right now, someone to lead us out of this mess. And it ISN'T any of the current crowd except maybe one. I won't say who I think is the best, but he's the only one talking like a true democrat. But the two I would vote for haven't announced and may never announce.

We have been abandoned by our party, and betrayed by our government.

[donkeyotay]

22. If you get drunk , get in a car wreck and leave the scene of the accident,

isn't your leaving considered evidence of a guilty conscience? I think the smoking gun is the pattern of deceit and the lack of any legal explanation for the firings. From the people who were selected for firing, the people in the firing process, the lack of any substantiation of their claims that the reason for firing was incompetence, the use of secret email instead of the legal and public one, the amnesia of witnesses, the pseudo-privilege...if Washington was smoking anymore it would burst into flames.

[radfringe]

15. entering a smoking gun into evidence for impeachment is not allowed

bush has claimed excutive privilege and forbid any smoking guns from appearing

[Acadia Blue]

16. All the rePIGs are cowards and 50 percent of the Dems are

[wishlist]

17. Ashcroft hospital visit was supposed to have been the smoking gun already

Even with another smoking gun, Gonzo will get away with contradictory confusing testimony and escape any repercussions for his dishonesty and lack of integrity

[KurtNYC]

18. that headline is a bogus quote

it is impossible to tell what Biden said based on this article. They never give a full sentence quote of what Biden said.

2 words out of a long sentence? and then only a chopped version in the article

[0rganism]

19. Sen. Biden continues to play by the old rules...

...where collegiate senators from opposing parties pat one another sportingly on the shoulder and say, "Jolly good game old chap, I though you had us with that last cloture vote over there, really I did. Indeed, I thought we'd have to table an amendment or three to get it past your bunch, I did. Well played, better luck next time."

And he's not the only one.

It's like the whole '90s thing had NO IMPACT WHATSOEVER on how Biden and his ilk run their affairs.

Perhaps Sen. Biden needs to be reminded of the 1998 congress and what they did to President Clinton after nearly a decade of open-ended investigations.

[rcdean]

20. He's just stating realistic, honest fact.

It takes consensus to impeach the AG.

Consensus would depend on having evidence sufficient to convict.

[tom_paine]

32. Bullshit. See my post below.

:puke:

[Solly Mack]

21. lololol

[bamacrat]

24. The smoking gun would be kept hidden under executive privilege.

Couldn't Congress or the Senate impeach him?

[chknltl]

25. Maybe we can hold a fundraiser...

...how expensive can a smoking gun be? Did Biden mention what this gun should be smoking? Cigars? Pipes? Hookahs? Maybe we could modify "Billy The Talking Bass" and hang it in Gonzo's office right where the photo of bush's butt is. Can you imagine the look on Gonzo's face while he is trying to figure out if he is now supposed to kiss "Smedly The Smoking Smelt" each day instead????

[JerseygirlCT]

26. Outright perjury, in front of a national television audience no less

doesn't count?

Does the gun actually have to be on fire and aimed at someone to count?

[deacon]

27. The videotape of him lying to congress over and over is the smoking gun.

[deacon]

28. If dems can't get rid of him- they are one sorry lot, period.

[tom_paine]

29. A SMOKING GUN?!? They already have a dozen of them!

Videotapes and cross-referenced recordings to the Gonzo deceptimony and the deceptimonies of the half-dozen lower ecehelon Bushies who actually and amazingly answered their subpeonas.

A dozen smoking guns already in existance, any one of which would land anyone from a street schulb to a CEO in hot water (the CEO would get probation while the street schlub would get 20 years)...but at least both would have legal action started against them.

NO SMOKING GUN?!? Who the f*ck are YOU kidding, Biden?!?

They are going to do it, aren't they? They are going to present precious few bumps in the road to the New Hitler, the New Caesars, aren't they?

The Royal Bushies are indeed above the law, fully and completely. The Dems have made it so by capitulation and are helping to rapidly cement our Caligulan mode of government with it's Orwellian language and double standards as well as it's fully Bushifed/Sovietized bureaucracy which will persist and also set in concrete unless actively rooted out by legal means.

Biden and the mostly spineless Democrats in Congress (with a few notable exceptions) have unilaterally taken that option away from the American People, who are now almost officially, the Imperial Subjects of Amerika.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Occulus]

33. Well, with all the lies and obfuscation he handed out in his hearing

I'd say he has already actually fired shots in the chamber and then laid then gun, still smoking, on the table in front of him.

He then moved the toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other, ran his hands through his Brylcreamed hair, and said in a tough-guy voice, "Whatcha gonna do 'bout it, punks?"

Do these people ever define "smoking gun"? What, exactly, does that phrase mean to them that it is so apparently different from its meaning to you and me?

[humbled_opinion]

35. So what exactly is the Congress doing about the criminal conduct?

It is a lot of talk... a lot of investigation... .and a lot of nothing... When are they going to stand up to these idiots and start using impeachment....

Wait lets see In 06 America elected Democratic candidates into the majority in Congress largely under the pledge of a new direction...

So far we are headed in the same direction no actually worse in Iraq, same direction, no actually worse on the economy... same direction, no actually worse on civil liberties, same direction, no actually worse on alternative energy, same direction, no actually worse on holding corporations accountable......

So we vote for change and we get more of the same?

[leaninglib]

36. Biden is right.

But whenever I observe Gonzales communicating, testifying or whatever; I ask myself, "where did this guy come from"?

Then I remember "oh yeah, someone as incompetent as he is appointed him."

So I suppose it make sense. Doesn't it...?

[deutsey]

37. We live in a political world

We're living in times where men commit crimes
And crime don't have a face.

Bob Dylan