I don't know what Gonzales thins he's doing - lying to cover up illegal activity or attempting to honor what he genuinely believes to be the President's right to confidential council, but whatever he is doing - he is doing it very badly.

I can already see the political ads. "This is your Republican Party: Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzales, Miers, DeLay, Haggerty, Ney, Stevens ..." About 28% of you will say, "Yeah. That's who I'm voting for." Unfortunately for you, 28% ain't going to cut it.

Gonzales did not say there was “no disagreement”. So Steve I guess by your standard you lied.

Another fishing expedition"

That does not jive with the testimony of Gonzalez' deputy and the director of the FBI. But then, the only real agenda here is toprotectt Gonzalez, and every member of the Bush Administration fromaccountabilityy, all the time, every where, just like the good old days of theRubberr Stamp Republican Congress, right?

BTW, I really tire of giving civics lessons to right wingers but Clinton was indeed impeached, which is the political equivilant of being accused by a grand jury. He was aquitted in the senate.

Well, not quite. The Senate failed to get the two-thirds majority required to remove him from office, but half the Senators voted to do so. Many, if not most, of who voted against removal did so, not on the basis that he wasn't "guilty" but that the crimes were not sufficiently serious to warrant removal.

BTW, I really tire of giving civics lessons to right wingers but Clinton was indeed impeached, which is the political equivilant of being accused by a grand jury. He was aquitted in the senate.

WTF. That's all I can think of for this idiocy. Clinton is wiley for actually perjuring himself while Gonzales is cartoonish because he was able to keep to “the literal truth.”? Nonsensical.

Did Clinton actually commit perjury?
Websters dictionary defines
Sexual relations as sexual intercourse which it defines as

1 : heterosexual intercourse involving penetration of the vagina by the penis

Free Online dictionary defines
Sexual relations

1. sexual relation - the act of sexual procreation between a man and a woman; the man's penis is inserted into the woman's vagina and excited until orgasm and ejaculation occur

Where was the perjury? What he did in this instance was shameful and dishonest, but not perjury. It seems to line up well with the definition of "wiley witness" as set down by the Supreme Court.

What Gonzales has done, is at a minimum, shameful, dishonest, and intentionally misleading. It may rise to the level of perjury. It may be that he was just a shamefully dishonest but "wiley" witness or he may be a felon, we will see when all the evidence is out.

In any case the Whitehouse continued the program without approval from the DoJ, whose opinion it was that the program was not legal. This action was supported by Gonzales in his capacity as WH counsel.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020601001.html

“GONZALES: Lawyers disagree.
SCHUMER: I concede all those points. Let me ask you about some specific reports.
It's been reported by multiple news outlets that the former number two man in
the Justice Department, the premier terrorism prosecutor, Jim Comey, expressed
grave reservations about the NSA program and at least once refused to give it
his blessing. Is that true?
GONZALES: Senator, here's the response that I feel that I can give with respect
to recent speculation or stories about disagreements.
There has not been any serious disagreement -- and I think this is accurate --
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...”

Gonzales did not say there was “no disagreement”. So Steve I guess by your standard you lied.

Another fishing expedition

I do not believe that AG Gonzalez is incompetent. It just appears that way as he decimates the DOJ by doing exactly what Karl Rove tells him to do (see any documented results in the Civil Rights Division, or the abandonment of prosecution of Congressman Jerry Lewis with the firing of US Attorney Carol Lam). It only looks incompetent because he has turned the DOJ into an extension of the Republican National Campaign Committee.

As to misleading, his declaration that there was "no disagreement" about the White Hose spying programs to congress earlier this year was an outright lie (except for those whose parsing of words would be embarrassing to anyone outside of the White House with a shred of dignity).

Please, what specifically leads you to say Gonzales is an incompetent? Also what specifically did he say that misled congress?

I'm asking a question that should have been asked long ago and so far I'm not getting it answered.

Gonzales may not be a good AG, but he's certainly a better AG than almost all of our current congresspersons are at conducting the business of congress.

Amazingly, I actually agree with brainy on this...

I would suggest that Gonzales has been badly served by his staff, some of whom have an agenda not aligned with the adminstration.

As brainy435 said, he may not be a good AG but he's better than these senators.

By the way, exactly what has he done, specifically, to be considered such a bad AG? Besides not answering Chuck Schumer the way Chuck wanted.