the political circus

"wolf!" they cried, this time with feeling

even as the benghazi gasbags crumple under their own morbidly obese weight, from the outset it was never possible to take republicans seriously on it. first, the point man just wants to throw his weight around in front of the cameras one last time before the next senate takes it away from him. second, four years ago the GOP proudly and loudly proclaimed that their number one priority was to make obama a one-term president. to win 2012 obama needed to fail. at everything. thus began a nonstop and ultimately futile campaign of single-minded obstruction, condemnation and sabotage of every act, nomination and proposal obama has attempted to make. that is now historical fact. the GOP came to raze him, then to bury him. in all of four years obama wrested from them but a single moment of respite — after disclosing the death of bin laden, where even the most rabid partisans could find no safe purchase from which to continue their attacks.

when a party adopts a nakedly self-serving program of categorical obstruction, they also loudly announce that the merits of any particular issue do. not. matter. one. whit. quite foolishly they surrendered all credibility on anything and everything they object to, since they were planning to object anyway. everything becomes a "crisis" and the critics become the old men that cried wolf. so despite their loud moral opprobrium at the deaths of four americans, does anyone believe, had benghazi never happened, that the GOP would not now be organizing some kind of "crucial" hearings about some other administration "scandal"? does anyone believe, had rice's name never been floated, that the GOP would not now be obstructing this nomination, as they have every other?

the wrong boys

"the evidence shows that mr. paterno was made aware of the 1998 investigation of sandusky, followed it closely, but failed to take any action, even though sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for almost 30 years, and had an office just steps away from mr. paterno's," the report's conclusion reads.

"at the very least, mr. paterno could have alerted the entire football staff, in order to prevent sandusky from bringing another child into the lasch building. messrs. spanier, schultz, paterno and curley also failed to alert the board of trustees about the 1998 investigation or take any further action against mr. sandusky. none of them even spoke to sandusky about his conduct.

"in short, nothing was done and sandusky was allowed to continue with impunity."

quote of the day

via hardcore conservative watering hole free republic, "attorney for cain accuser says ‘series’ of incidents prompted complaint":

every male i've ever worked with could have a sexual harassment suit filed against him. Every Single One....

except me....

coda

for as long and as often as we've heard ordinary folks dismiss political operators with a disgusted "a pox on both their houses!", it is still very easy to separate the democrats from the republicans, just by listening to their apologies. can you tell which is which?

1) tom vilsack:

... i started off by extending to her my personal and profound apologies for — for the pain and discomfort that has been caused to her and to her family over the course of the last several days. ... and then i asked if she would be interested in figuring out a way forward that would take advantage of the extraordinary life experiences that she's had ...

2) andrew breitbart:

[ ... crickets ... ]

the art of the backdown ii

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

and the winner is ...

it's only wednesday but i feel pretty safe in bestowing this week's "look who's oozed out from under its rock" award and "feces flinger of the week" trophy to disgraced former FEMA head michael "heckuvajob" brown for his transparently self-serving efforts to wipe the stink of katrina onto obama:

brown:	and i think the delay was this: it's pure politics. this president has never supported big oil. he's never supported offshore drilling. and now he has an excuse to shut it back down. you've already heard bill nelson, senator from florida, saying offshore drilling is DOA. they played politics with this crisis and left the coast guard out there doing what they're supposed to do.
cavuto:	so michael, you don't take him at face value when he says a temporary halt in offshore drilling is just that — a temporary halt.
brown:	no, no. look bill nelson — and you know, they don't say these things without it being coordinated — and so now you're looking at this oil slick approaching the louisiana shore, according to certain NOAA and other places, if the winds are right it'll go up the east coast. this is exactly what they want. because now he can pander to the environmentalists and say, 'i'm going to shut it down because it's too dangerous.' while mexico and china and everybody else drills in the gulf, we're going to get shut down.

brown:	hey, hey, chris, i think there's two things. i think, one, we're seeing the rahm emanuel rule number one, ah, taking effect. and that is, "let no crisis go unused". so, this is an opportunity for a president who wants to bankrupt the coal industry and basically get rid of the oil and gas industry to shut down offshore drilling in the gulf of mexico.
	[snip]
matthews:	why would somebody sabotage something that would cause this kind of damage to our planet, really?
brown:	oh well, because i think there are terrorists in the world who would like to do that sort of thing. terrorists don't give a rat's butt about the ecology or anything else. all they care about is hurting america.
	[snip]
matthews:	... but he just came out for offshore oil drilling.
brown:	oh, chris, ah, i'm glad you asked that. he came out and said, look, i'm going to approve oil and gas drilling. and all you guys went, look what a great guy he is, trying to reach out to everybody else. chris, all he did was he approved two existing leases on the northeast coast, and shut down all the other proposed leases on the west coast and the southeast coast. there was nothing new in what he did.
matthews:	but don't you know what you're saying to a third party, not somebody like myself or somebody like yourself, listening to you, thinks that you're sounding insane. you're saying that the president of the united states went into slow-mo here, somehow — or for somehow seemed to be working faster than he really was, but was really quite slow to get there, because he saw an opportunity to exploit a disaster so that he could reap discredit on to the coal industry. and by the way, a couple of weeks ago —
brown:	no, no, no, not just the coal ...
matthews:	— he came down for offshore drilling so that he could discredit it when this thing occurred. are you suggesting he somehow knew this would happen and that's why he came out for offshore drilling?
brown:	no, no ...
matthews:	it sounds like that's what you're saying —
brown:	no, no, chris, hang on ...
matthews:	— and it sounds crazy. crazy!
brown:	well, and the way you just put it, chris, the way you just put it, it sounds crazy to me, too.

image problem

(art by clay bennet)

still not getting it

just for easter, the embattled vatican manages another baby step ... deeper into purgatory:

a senior cardinal has said the roman catholic faithful will not be swayed by "petty gossip" about child sex-abuse allegations. ... during easter mass in st peter's square, cardinal sodano expressed solidarity with the pope, who has himself come under scrutiny for his role in handling past cases of abuse. "holy father, the people of god are with you and will not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment, by the trials that sometimes assail the community of believers," the cardinal said. ... the vatican's official newspaper, l'osservatore romano, stepped up its defence of the pope in its sunday edition, publishing messages of support from around the world and denouncing the "slanderous attacks and the defamation campaign surrounding the drama of abuse by priests".

quote of the night

joe sudbay @ americablog:

the vatican has tried to distance the church from those remarks [comparing criticism of the church to anti-semitism]. but, the priest gave those remarks in front of the pope and his words were reported by the vatican newspaper. that would be like [press secretary] robert gibbs making a statement in front of obama, which was also posted on the white house website — and have the white house say gibbs wasn't speaking for them.

victims

the vatican cries "foul!" in response to withering criticism for decades of sheltering pedophiles:

the "coincidence" that passover falls in the same week as easter celebrations, said cantalamessa, a franciscan who offers reflections at vatican easter and advent services, prompted him to think about jews. "they know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms," the preacher said. quoting from the letter from the friend, who wasn't identified by cantalamessa, the preacher said that he was following "'with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful of the whole world.'" "'the use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-semitism,'" cantalamessa said his friend wrote him.

pope benedict:

the vatican:

jews:

see the analogy?

worth 1000 words

meet scott rothstein, soon to be adorning dictionary and thesaurus entries everywhere for the word "sleaze":

or better yet, don't meet him.

that is, if you could, since he seems to have vanished:

in a case already being compared to the bernie madoff affair, a lawsuit filed monday in broward county accuses south florida "super attorney" scott rothstein of bilking investors in a scheme run out of the powerful firm rothstein, rosenfeldt and adler, which now says it can't make payroll. an attorney for one investor told the south florida sun sentinel that the amount of money missing could be over $100 million, though it's not clear where it went. ... he's now out of town and possibly out of the country — no one knows where exactly — and the feds have reportedly shown up at his law firm offices. ... while all of the specifics of the the alleged fraud are not known, CBS 4 reports it may have involved both taking from client trust funds and setting up a side company to sell investments in structured settlements. those are arrangements in which payments are made over time rather than all at once, reaping tax benefits for the payee and allowing the payer to avoid having to come up with the lump sum upfront. ... the problem? some of the settlements rothstein sold didn't actually exist, according to the lawsuit.

ok, wait — sure, the guy's a crook, but c'mon, this is just run-of-the-mill embezzlement. so where's the beef? scottie needs to dig a little deeper if he's gonna be our new poster boy for sleaze, doesn't he?

not to worry, folks. let's just take a look at those "structured settlements" he's been hustling, shall we?

those documents say that rothstein's firm sought out sexual discrimination and whistle-blower cases and used former cops to dig up incriminating evidence. sakowitz, the potential investor, said rothstein boasted of having sophisticated eavesdropping equipment and that former cops would sift through potential defendants' garbage. with compromising evidence in hand, the firm urged the targets of the claims to pay a settlement without a public lawsuit.

and this literal bottomfeeder lied to his "investors" about those, too.

folks, i believe we have a winner!

---

sleaze |slēz|: noun
immoral, sordid, and corrupt behavior or material, esp. in business or politics
• informal: a sordid, corrupt, or immoral person; scott rothstein

iokiyad*

alaska governor and former republican vice presidential political punchline nominee sarah palin abruptly flames out resigns.

while some question her wisdom:

resignation is a BIG mistake if she actually aspires to higher, national office. only three years as a governor in a very sparsely populated state will be a deal-breaker to a great number of americans, if not to all but the most ardent palin supporters.

... and others rattle her closet for skeletons:

maybe that really was her in "nailin' palin".

... others find new hope:

have heart my freeper friends....this is the best news i have heard in days......sarah is answering the call, and doing it the right way.... she will now be free to travel the country and speak to all comers....she cannot be accused of ignoring her job as govenor, which is totally fine for democrats but unacceptable to people with integrity.... have heart and say your prayers to protect sarah on her very dangerous journey.....

... which brings to mind this quite timely case in point:

---

* "it's ok if you're a democrat"

bernie's big mistake

... was not in ripping off little old ladies, children, cripples, pensions and charities. the king of the ponzi scheme supreme is not going away for decades past his dying for a white-collar crime so time-honored yet pedestrian.

no, his singular, unforgivable sin was the gravest sin of all: he ripped off his rich friends.

ny times: but in meting out the maximum sentence, judge chin pointed out that no friends, family or other supporters had submitted any letters on mr. madoff’s behalf, attesting to the strength of his character or good deeds he had done. even mr. madoff’s wife, ruth, whose own awareness of his business dealings has been a major unanswered question, issued a statement on monday distancing herself from him. ... she was not in court for the sentencing hearing.

bloomberg: the courtroom erupted in applause and shouts after chin imposed the sentence.

bloomberg: prosecutors said yesterday in their response to madoff's bail appeal that he should remain behind bars while he awaits sentencing. they said that madoff is a flight risk because he is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison, has been "shunned by the community," owns a home abroad, and has spent decades lying to clients.

newser: documents released today showed that ruth agreed to give up boats and vehicles as well as properties in manhattan, montauk,and palm beach, fla. the deal may allow her to move on after months of being shunned at manhattan establishments and crucified in the tabloids.

reuters: ruth madoff has not been charged with any crimes but she has been widely vilified by defrauded investors, shunned by people she once knew and pursued by the new york press. under the agreement she could still be liable to civil claims.

falling like tenpins

congratulations, mark ... you've just handed your party another much-needed crisis in leadership. after all, it's only been a week since the last one. john ensign thanks you for the respite ...

anybody else worried that every candidate who shows up on the radar screen is put under a microscope (O’s watching!). sarah palin john ensign mark sanford republicans need to unite against “the one” just look how he wiped out hillary when he wasn’t even on the map 2 years before 2008... no, we do not need to "unite against 'the one'". we need to unite FOR a qualified, responsible, and electable candidate. that rules out palin, ensign, and sanford. democrats united FOR "the one", and that's how he got elected. "the one" did his part too, in that he didn't have his immediate family behaving like trailer trash, didn't get caught having an affair with blackmail and job favors involved, and didn't disappear without explanation while serving in the us senate.

like mark davis said yesterday on rush, if sanford doesn’t have a logical, reasonable explanation for his disappearance, he’s toast as far as a run for the presidency goes. now, if he were a democrat, the media would be celebrating his sense of independence and adventure and how he’s going to bring new ideas and energy to his role as governor of the great state of SC. he’s toast already. disappearing for a few days without letting your staff or wife know where you are or how to reach you or at least what they’re *supposed* to say about your absence, and then resurfacing several days lateer saying “what’s the big deal?” is not career-ending behavior for a pop singer or sociology professor, but it most certainly IS career-ending behavior for a state governor and would-be republican POTUS nominee. we republicans are into the personal responsibility thing.

... especially when you've made it your platform by castigating everybody else for lacking it.

republicans should not have affairs with married staff members or take mystery trips to argentina without informing wife or staff. and, they need to do a better job of pointing hypocrisy of the rich wall-street dems from goldman sachs and citigroup who are destroying this country!

republicans have to be squeaky clean because they are expected to be. they must be articulate because so many of our candidates in the past have not been, and well, we all know how GWB was about less govt. i haven’t seen the GOP candidate that can do all that yet. it’s not sanford (not a lot of charisma and this disappearing act isn’t good) palin (more of a joke now on the national stage) or jindal (again with the speaking on a national level ) and no one in congress seems to want less govt. isn’t there someone else out there who can go toe to toe with obama?

the whole problem is the dems send in thier best teams of smarmy hacks, and the pubbies can’t do that because the best are usally running a buisness or 2 or 3.

... because republicans are just too damn clean and hardworking for their own good.

time to throw my support to haley barbour, i guess.

now there's a ringing endorsement.

frankly, i am so sick and tired of the ridiculous standards that somehow must apply to our candidates/leaders, when nowhere near the scrutiny comes to those on the other side. we have too many on OUR side who have bought into this bs. i would just as soon have the truck driver at the local bar become president or senator, because we would likely get better leadership from someone like that. and to all romney supporters, go stick it.

here's an novel idea: next time try nominating somebody you'd rather have a beer with ...

this is way beyond something where the media latches on to a misstep or a family member or a misspeaking of a word. this is about strange internal demons and being out of touch with reality. i think this was his way of telling us that he didn't want to go any further in leadership.

admittedly, he could have finessed the rollout a little better.

doesn’t rule out palin at all! sarah 2012!!!

i seriously am feeling sick. i am very depressed. fieldmarshaldj had me look at sanford and i actually did and really like him. this is so disappointing. i sincerely am sorry fieldmarshaldj for this...seriously!!!

well good old fieldmarshal spent the morning villainizing those of us with the temerity to question sanford when there was a distinct whiff of adultery in the air. ready to apology fieldmarshal?

"fieldmarshalj" responds:

he let a lot of us down, and seeing the spectacle on tv... just very sad. i spent this entire morning defending the man to the hilt and hearing what is pouring out of his mouth... no words.

so is jindal the one i have to default to for ‘12 now? at this rate we're gonna be defaulting to some unknown state senator.

and the guy didn’t even buy american. sorry, but this guy is half a bubble off. getting on the plane for nooky? make me sick.

well, another one of sarah’s oppnents goes down the tubers. next, we find out that mitt’s hairpiece is phony. jesus, they’re falling like tenpins. no. this is really pathetic. especially watching him hide behind the bible. you don’t go into republican politics if you can’t hide john thomas in your pants. you don’t cheat on the mrs. you just don’t. if you do, the D’s will find out about it and kill you. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. so, i wonder how much rahm paid the girl to flip on him?

this should end all the speculation

formerly awol south carolina governor mark sanford:

sanford, in an exclusive interview with the state media company, said he decided at the last minute to go to the south american country to recharge after a difficult legislative session in which he battled with lawmakers over how to spend federal stimulus money. ... sanford said he was alone on the trip. he declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline. ... when asked why his staff said he was on the appalachian trail, sanford replied, "i don't know." sanford later said "in fairness to his staff," he had told them he might go hiking on the appalachian trial. ... "i don't know how this thing got blown out of proportion," sanford said. sanford said he has taken adventure trips for years to unwind.

and from abc news:

abc’s joe goldman reports that a us embassy official in buenos aires tells him that the embassy had "absolutely no idea" that sanford was in argentina. the embassy official added that this comes "from out of left field -- it would be extremely odd that a us governor would not check in with the embassy."

us governor missing for a week. no wife, no kids, no security, no staff — who say he's hiking appalachia. he returns on a jet from argentina. no harm, no foul.

is it irresponsible to speculate? it would be irresponsible not to.

take it away, folks ...

@ john cole's balloon juice:

this is 798 different kinds of awesome. the spin that comes out of this should be framed and put into the smithsonian. this is going to be so damned funny.

i'm beginning to think now that he did have a blowup with his wife, she told him to GTFO, father's day or no father's day, and he did. staffer a: "she told him to take a fucking hike. what the hell do we say to the press?" staffer b: "charlie, you're a genius! that's exactly what we'll say!"

packing for hiking the appalachian trail in summer and visiting argentina in winter are not exactly similar.

who's paying for this trip? didn't he refuse to accept stimulus money on the basis that it would hurt sc's fiscal situation?

eliot spitzer (under pressure from many, including democrats) resigned for less.

i'd like to post something witty and insightful on this topic, but my brain is hung up on "wait, what?"

@ josh marshall's tpmmuckraker:

mistress had an abortion ... know [sic] doubt.

google 'sex tourism "buenos aires" ' and you will learn such fun facts as, "in fact, buenos aires is gradually becoming one of the most notoriously popular destinations for sex tourism."

so this is how the governor is burnishing his foreign policy bonafides for when he runs for president...

things that will now be funny to hear sanford talk about: importance of traditional family values. honesty fiscal responsibility accountability importance of sealing the southern borders.

i hear that the buenos aires airport bathrooms have nice stalls.

he told his staff he was "spiking some argentina tail," and they HEARD "hiking the appalachian trail". easy mistake to make.

@govsanford: went down to south america had a hard time sneaking back into the states. now i know how all those illegals from mexico feel.

i think he fathered a lovechild on one of his previous visits and the woman demanded that he spend father's day with little marco or else she would spill the beans.

those 'mystery solved' headlines from monday evening are looking pretty prescient, right?

ruh row*

at the beginning of february, the runaway train that is the republican party crashed another siding:

top house republicans were told in recent days that a former employee of their campaign committee may have forged an official audit during the contentious 2006 election cycle and that they should brace for the possibility that an unfolding investigation could uncover financial improprieties stretching back several years, according to gop sources briefed on the members-only discussions. the national republican congressional committee has retained a forensic auditor to review its accounting for the last several election cycles, the sources said. the nrcc’s accounting problems were discussed during two high-level conference calls between senior gop lawmakers on friday and monday night, according to republicans briefed on the calls. “there is a sense that this could be very damaging to the committee,” said a republican insider close to the gop leadership.

"damaging"? y'think?

i can't imagine that the republicans — whose fundraising prowess has wilted since 2006 — are too thrilled at the prospect of having the fbi open a criminal audit on their finances, which threatens to shutter their coffers during a crucial campaign year.

every financial advangtage the gop has enjoyed over the last few election cycles has evaporated. with the piggy bank locked up, added to the steadily accumulating retirements, special election losses and indictments, november 2008 looms as the year historians will mark as "the republican diaspora".

* see "scooby doo".

the long goodbye

(courtesy of steve brodner at mother jones)

gang of perps

curry:	well, let's talk about the political fallout. first it's been a rough year for the right. let's list them: congressman mark foley, conservative pastor ted haggard, senator david vitter. all involved in scandals, accusing them of inappropriate conduct. so the question's gotta be asked, why do these kinds of scandals seem to be following republicans, lately?
scarborough:	what's with the republican party? and before that you can talk about duke cunningham apparently having poker parties where reports were that they were trading votes for sex. i don't know. you can talk about the closeted republican that votes like larry craig, that votes for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage or votes against protections for discriminating against gays in the workplace. perhaps they are more closeted, perhaps the republican party does not allow gay members to win their primaries. so maybe these guys have to live these secret lives where on the democratic side, you've got democrats — i think it, it comes down to hypocrisy. mainly where you have democrats that will support same-sex marriage or civil unions and will fight to stop discrimination in the workplace against gays and lesbians. because of that there are the issues of hypocrisy that follow republicans around, whether you're talking about david vitter or whether you're talking about larry craig or whether you're talking about mark foley.
curry:	well the question, i think is, you know, how does this specter of hypocrisy affect the party, especially as we're now moving into a very critical time for the republican party facing this presidential election year?
scarborough:	well it's, it's very simple. you know, last year people were talking about the war, they were talking about runaway deficit spending but the bottom-line is, with the republicans that i spoke to, after the mark foley scandal broke, they looked at each other and said, "well, that's it. we're gonna have a democratic senate and we're gonna have a democratic house and because of mark foley, nancy pelosi is gonna be speaker of the house." so, of course, you can't blame mark foley for everything but there were these scandals following jack abramoff, following duke cunningham. following —
curry:	point taken, joe, but what's the impact going to be if that's what happened after mark foley came, faced the scandal? what's going to happen now, regarding, after this senator's, what he's facing.
scarborough:	well — it's not, it's not a good impact. it's not gonna have a great impact on idaho. i think, you know, i just don't think a democrat can be elected for the u.s. senate in idaho but larry craig's career is probably over. the former 'singing senator' is gonna be singing alone in idaho, probably next year. but the bigger impact with the republican party in america will be like the tory party in great britain when they had one sex scandal after another. there is a sleaze, an element of sleaze that will hang over this party. because, again, we had the david vitter scandal a couple of months ago. the two sex scandals, this year, have involved republicans, conservative, pro-family, pro-life republicans.
curry:	it's also interesting to note, joe, that senator craig has been a co-liaison to the, in the senate, for the mitt romney campaign.
scarborough:	yeah.
curry:	so the question is, also, is this gonna spill over?
scarborough:	well you know, i don't think anybody would blame mitt romney for what larry craig did in a bathroom in minneapolis because of larry craig's, as he says, "unusually wide-stance." [touché, joe!] that he wasn't sending signals. but what this does bring up for mitt romney is a problem about his flip-flops. his flip-flops on abortion, his flip-flops on gun control and his flip-flop on gay rights. so, you have a guy like larry craig, who's on your campaign, at least for 24 hours in this news cycle, will raise questions. well, mitt romney do you support same-sex marriage this week or do you oppose same-sex marriage this week? and i suspect after that it'll all blow over. the biggest problem, though, again, has to do with hypocrisy and the republican party. and right now you've got larry craig linked with mark foley, linked with david vitter, linked with duke cunningham going, my gosh, i think every sex scandal in washington d.c., since bill clinton and monica lewinsky has involved a republican. and that has to have an impact and may break the republican party, again, just a little bit more away from its evangelical base.
curry:	and, and joe, i was gonna remind people, you are a republican. you are a former republican congressman, so those are very strong words and opinion from you. joe scarborough, thank you so much this morning.
scarborough:	always good to remind my republican friends, that yes i am a republican. doesn't sound like it. thanks a lot.

the g.o.p. most definitely have a big problem dogging them into the next election cycle, but hypocrisy on family values and gay issues is really just a small part of it. american voters can deal with hypocrisy. and like most other people, most homosexuals don't lurk in public bathrooms, so just being gay isn't a problem for republicans as long as it's on the down low.

no, the big problem for the gang of perps in washington is criminality. über-lobbyist jack abramoff is in prison for fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion. former ca. rep. duke cunningham is with him for bribery. former fla. rep. mark foley may be looking at charges for corrupting minors, under some of the same statutes he helped enact.

louisiana senator david vitter frequented prostitutes. florida state rep. bob allen is facing charges for solicitation of prostitution, while idaho senator larry craig plead guilty to disorderly conduct to avoid charges of lewd conduct.

scarborough tossed in the lewinsky affair in a feeble attempt for balance, but sex between consenting adults still isn't criminal behavior, so the gang of perps tried to hang clinton on perjury. but lewinsky did not create a problem for the democrats at the end of the clinton era — the democrats' own timidity under fire from the right-wing noise machine™ was what undermined them.

so it's the steady stream of arrests, trials and convictions that's killing the g.o.p. and it's the accompanying "sleaze" that's souring their brand for the voters. and as long as the gang of perps keep turning up on the wrong side of the law, the party that once boasted of a permanent majority will remain locked up as a permanent minority.

another one bites the dust

(art by aarrgghh)

gonzales bids hasta la vista.

what's striking to me is how little sadness there is on the right that he is leaving. a quick look over at "the corner" shows that most conservatives there view his departure with relief. michelle malkin wasn't upset to seem him go either. a quick blogosphere check shows that most on the right are okay with this decision. but i wonder why republicans and wingnuts aren't angry about gonzo's departure. gonzalez has been radioactive for months now. he became the walking symbol of the bush administration's failures — incompetence, corruption and cronyism (loyalty uber alles). for him to resign now — after the disastrous appearances on the hill, after his deceptions, after stubbornly refusing to do so months ago when it could have stemmed the tide — well, it seems like defusing a bomb after it had already gone off. it's like rumsfeld all over again. this departure brings back memories of the phrase, the mayberry machiavellis. bush and friends seem intent on going down hard and taking the gop with them.