Joshua Epstein: How many times can AG Gonzales LIE before being called a 'LIAR'?

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Joshua Epstein

If you want to know what makes Democrats look weak, it's the inaction they have shown in not just demanding the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, but threatening to impeach if he doesn't resign.

How many more times will they allow this pathological liar to get way with making fools of them all?

It is their constitutional duty to remove this man from office immediately if the Attorney General (or the President) refuses to do so.

No more hearings. No more op-eds. No more tongue lashings. No toothless "no confidence" votes.

It's time for action.

This man has lied under oath - say it with me - HE LIED UNDER OATH not once, not twice, but from my count AT LEAST SIX TIMES. The fact that not a single Democrat investigating him has actually had the courage to come right out and call him a LIAR, is so pathetic it's becoming comical.

Let's review the lying history so far:

1. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales LIED under oath when he testified last week:

"that the effort was limited to eight U.S. attorneys fired since last June, and other administration officials have said that only a few others were suggested for removal."

The Washington Post is now reporting the following:

"The Justice Department considered dismissing many more U.S. attorneys than officials have previously acknowledged, with at least 26 prosecutors suggested for termination between February 2005 and December 2006, according to sources familiar with documents withheld from the public."

2. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales LIED under oath when he stated the following about the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program (via Think Progress):

" ...there has not been any serious disagreement about the program that the president has confirmed. There have been disagreements about other matters regarding operations, which I cannot get into. I will also say...

...The point I want to make is that, to my knowledge, none of the reservations dealt with the program that we are talking about today."

As you now know, Deputy Attorney General James Comey has just informed you there were major issues about the spying program when in his testimony he described. From The New York Times:

"President Bush intervened in March 2004 to avert a crisis over the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program after Attorney General John Ashcroft, Director Robert S. Mueller III of the F.B.I. and other senior Justice Department aides all threatened to resign, a former deputy attorney general testified Tuesday."

This "discrepancy" suggests either two possibilities (or both):

1) Comey's objections apply to the NSA warrantless wiretapping program that Gonzales was discussing. If so, then Gonzales quite likely LIED under oath. And Gonzales was deeply and personally involved in the meeting at Ashcroft's hospital bed, so he won't be able to claim "I forgot."

2) Perhaps Comey's objections applied to a different domestic spying program. That has a big advantage for Gonzales - he wasn't lying under oath. But then we would have senior Justice officials confirming that other "programs" exist for domestic spying, something the Administration has never previously stated.

3. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales LIED under oath when he said all Bush-appointed attorneys would be 'Senate-Confirmed' after it little-noticed provision slipped into the Patriot Act in 2005 allowing the President to appoint "interim" U.S. attorneys for an indefinite period of time, without Senate confirmation, became known.

On Jan. 18, he assured the Senate Judiciary Committee that the administration never intended to take advantage of it:

GONZALES: And so let me publicly sort of preempt perhaps a question you're going to ask me, and that is: I am fully committed, as the administration's fully committed, to ensure that, with respect to every United States attorney position in this country, we will have a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed United States attorney.

It turns out Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did exactly that when he bypassed the Senate and installed Tim Griffin.

4. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales LIED to Sen. Mark Pryor (via U.S. News & World Report) when he pledged to him in late 2006 that he wanted "to go through a Senate confirmation" to get Tim Griffin installed as U.S. attorney.

In truth, after hearing of Pryor's opposition to Griffin, Gonzales and his chief of staff mobilized a plan to "gum the process to death," run out the clock, and keep Griffin in office.

5. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales LIED under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he said that the Justice Department was "working with home state senators to get U.S. attorneys nominated."

But as The Washington Post noted, e-mails show that "as early as last August," Justice officials, "discussed bypassing the two Democratic senators in Arkansas, who normally would have had input into the appointment."

On Jan. 18, Gonzales also stated:

"I think I would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney for political reasons or if it would in any way jeopardize an ongoing serious investigation. I just would not do it."

6. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales LIED under oath to Congress back in January 2005, during his confirmation process:

Per Think Progress: "In January 2006, Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI) charged yesterday that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales misled the Senate during his confirmation hearing a year ago when he appeared to try to avoid answering a question about whether the president could authorize warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens."

Here's what Gonzales said (via The Washington Post):

"The policy of the United States is not to transfer individuals to countries where we believe they likely will be tortured, whether those individuals are being transferred from inside or outside the United States." He added that he was "not aware of anyone in the Executive Branch authorizing any transfer of a detainee in violation of that policy."

But, when Gonzales was White House counsel, Bush signed a directive shortly after 9/11 that authorized the CIA to transfer suspected terrorists to foreign countries for interrogation. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International estimate that the United States has transferred between 100 and 150 detainees to countries notorious for torture.

That's a LIE.

7. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales LIED under oath to then Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine (on the Senate Judiciary Committee) when he said "that the legal requirement for Bush's domestic wiretapping program is no lower than the "probable cause" requirement of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

From The Washington Post:
"...The standard is a probable cause standard. It is reasonable grounds to..."

"...It's probable cause that a party to the communication is a member or agent of Al Qaida. The precise language that I'd like to refer to is, 'There are reasonable grounds to believe that a party to communication is a member or agent or Al Qaida or of an affiliated terrorist organization.' It is a probable cause standard, in my judgment."

By my count that makes seven -- SEVEN TIMES this man has LIED to congress (that we know of), six of which have been under oath -- through a smirk he makes no attempt to control.

Each time he lies, each time he walks out of a hearing with that smug look on his face, he makes a mockery of our judicial system and ALL DEMOCRATS ON THE COMMITTEE.

No more hearings. No more op-eds. No more tongue lashings. No toothless "no confidence" votes. Either he resigns immediately or they impeach this bastard. Democrats MUST some damn backbone!

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

Joshua Epstein
New York City, NY

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