Under any other administration Alberto Gonzales would have been gone long ago. But he's like the in-law who moves in, drinks all your beer and refuses to leave.
Up to now Democrats have been driving stakes in this vampire but keep missing the heart. Maybe Pat Leahy has solved that problem:
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy threatened yesterday to request a perjury investigation of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, as Democrats said an intelligence official's statement about a classified surveillance program was at odds with Gonzales's sworn testimony.
The latest dispute involving public remarks by Gonzales concerned the topic of a March 10, 2004, White House briefing for members of Congress. Gonzales, in congressional testimony Tuesday, said the purpose of the briefing was to address what he called "intelligence activities" that were the subject of a legal dispute inside the administration.
And yet, Leahy still wants to give Gonzo one more chance:
Leahy (D-Vt.) told reporters he is giving Gonzales until late next week to revise his testimony about the surveillance program or he will ask Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine to conduct a perjury inquiry: "I'll ask the inspector general to determine who's telling the truth."
We already know who is telling the truth and it ain't Gonzo.
Gonzo, for his part, waved a dismissive imperial hand at Leahy's threat, not even bothering to address it himself but sending a spokesman to do it:
Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said yesterday that Gonzales "stands by his testimony," and that "the disagreement . . . was not about the particular intelligence activity that has been publicly described by the president. It was about other highly classified intelligence activities."
Gonzo is daring Senate Democrats to do something about his lying and his arrogance. It's about time someone caled his bluff.