Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and TV mafiosa Tony Soprano may have more in common than most people think. Both the oft-criticized consiglieri to the president and the stone-cold wise guy’s futures are cloudy at best.
In case you haven’t kept up to date on the world’s most acclaimed show, in its last episode the writers left viewers hanging by fading to black just after a couple of shady characters walked into the diner where Tony and the rest of the Soprano clan were eating. Presumably, he got whacked – or not. Debate among yourselves.
Democrats in the Senate tried to give Gonzales his own final scene on Monday. While they garnered a majority with the help of a few Republicans, their effort to move on from the debating phase into holding a no confidence vote, non-binding as it is, on the attorney general failed to reach the necessary 60 Yeas, effectively blocking the vote.
Still though, the message got through. The Senate intends to keep a close eye on the executive branch, scanning for any sign of political shenanigans. A stakeout, if you will.
Not to mention the 2004 rendezvous with then Attorney General John Ashcroft, drugged up and in a hospital bed following gallbladder surgery, where Gonzales and Andrew Card, the then White House Chief of Staff, pled with him for authorization to continue the controversial warrantless wiretapping program.
It’s tough to just level criticism on only the Bush administration, though. Upon entering office in 1993, the Clinton administration cleaned house of all but one of Bush Sr.’s U.S. attorneys, 93 in total. Shame on him, too.
What makes Gonzalez’s actions so scandalous are his outright and obstinate denials in the face of overwhelming evidence.
His performance in front of Congress recently was atrocious. Gonzales poorly concealed the fact that he was covering for those in the White House.
It’s not specifically that the firing and hiring of U.S. attorneys by Gonzalez turned out to be a politically motivated call that is so bad – it’s that they always are.
Just because one serves at the pleasure of the president doesn’t mean that you have to incessantly back him up like some rough-necked New Jersey capo.
Party loyalty should only take you so far. And after that point, things start to look less like a political party, and more like La Cosa Nostra.
At least in the president’s eyes though, for the seven Republicans who voted with Democrats to shut off debate and move to a vote, the words of another fictional mobster come to mind – "I knew it was you, Fredo."
