Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

The Senate’s intention of holding a no-confidence vote on the Attorney General really irks President Bush. At a press conference on his Texas ranch with NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer today, the President continued to stand by his lawman, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

One reporter asked Bush about the reported no-confidence vote concerning the Attorney General that’s looming in the Senate: “Is it your intention to keep Alberto Gonzales as your Attorney General for the rest of your administration, regardless of what the Senate does?”

The president’s answer remained consistent with his other unwaivering statements he’s made in te past:

“He has got my confidence. He has done nothing wrong. There’s been enormous amount of attention on him — that there’s been no wrongdoing on his part. He has testified in front of Congress. And I, frankly, view what’s taking place in Washington today as pure political theater. And it is this kind of political theater that has caused the American people to lose confidence in how Washington operates.

I stand by Al Gonzales and I would hope that people would be more sober in how they address these important issues. And they ought to get the job done of passing legislation, as opposed to figuring out how to be actors on the political theater stage.”

Bush’s suggestion that the bipartisan opposition to Gonzales remaining in office as being nothing more than “political theatre” is, reality, political theatre itself. As this blog observed over the last two months, the Gonzales’ repeated statements that he’s hard at work on more important things like catching child predators has been nothing less than a calculated strategy of trying to shift public attention away from why he failed to respond to a subpoena from Congress, attempt to shift attention away from repeated calls for his resignation.