With all of the hubbub over the 8 fired U.S. Attorneys now going into its third week (or more, I lose track) I am struck by the Republicans that now partake in party cannibalism in order to be noticed. With that Nebraska punk Representative that has added his name to the list of Republican "heroes" to the drive-by media, now numbering 5, that have demanded Alberto Gonzalez resign from his post as Attorney General.  I had to ask myself, "Self, why should Gonzalez resign when the only thing he did wrong was to properly explain the need for the firings to Chucky Schumer?"  The only answer I can think of is that it is now a part of the liberal playbook to criminalize the execution of Constitutional authority in Republican administrations.  I harken back to the days of Janet "the torch" Reno and how she was able to stay at her post despite many politically motivated acts and questionable ethics that went on while she sat as Attorney General under Clinton. The hypocrisy of the liberals in Congress is stark and very striking.  Let us now compare and contrast the reigns of Reno vis a vie that of Gonzalez.

                                                 Janet Reno

Background:  US attorney general (1993–2001), born in Miami, Florida, USA, the first woman to become US attorney general and the longest serving occupant of that cabinet post. She studied at Harvard Law School, and became the county prosecutor in Dade County, FL (1978–93). President Clinton named her attorney general in 1993 after two women who had been selected withdrew their candidacies.

Events of note: 

- Approved of the tactics used by ATF agents at Ruby Ridge, where an innocent mother and child were shot and killed by Federal agents

- Approved the tactics used by Federal agents against the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, which led to 80 people, 20 of which were children, to be incinerated to death.  Reno said she tried to resign but Clinton won't let her.

- Found "no controlling legal authority" and therefore did not appoint an independent prosecutor in the campaign finance scandals in the 1996 presidential election where Al Gore solicited campaign contributions from Buddhist monks, the Clinton campaign accepted campaign contributions from Chinese agents of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese red Army.

- Deported Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba.  He was seized in America after her heavily armed Federal agents raided the home of members of Gonzalez's family living in Miami, Florida in the dead of night.

- Wasted billions of taxpayer dollars going after Microsoft on a trumped up "anti-trust" charge.  The end result was a few million in fines.  Microsoft was not required to break up. 

- Even though her Department of Justice did prosecute the blind sheik and did prosecute Ramsi Yousef, she failed to capture the financiers or the true masterminds of the 1993 World Trade Center, which turned out to be Khalid Sheik Mohammed.  Turns out that KSM planned and executed the 2001 World Trade Center bombing, commonly referred to as 9/11.  Her deputy, Jaime Gorelick, implemented the policy where any grand jury testimony could not be turned over to intelligence and law enforcement official,  the infamous "Wall".  She failed to capture the perpetrators of the 1998 African Embassy bombings and didn't even lift a finger to try to get the USS Cole bombers. 

- Here is the piece de resistance: Fired ALL 93 U.S. Attorneys in March of 1993 for no other reason than they were appointed by George Herbert Walker Bush, which was fully in President Clinton's Constitutionally specified authority to do.  Many of these attorneys were working on criminal cases involving many Democrats to include Dan Rostenkowski and President Bill Clinton's dealings with Whitewater, a scam to steal money from retirees using burdensome real estate language.


                                                    Alberto Gonzalez

Background:  Gonzales was born in San Antonio, Texas, and raised in Humble, near Houston. He was the second of eight children born to Pablos and Maria Gonzales. His father, who died in 1982, was a construction worker. Both his parents were children of immigrants from Mexico with less than a high-school education themselves; in the midst of a national debate in the US about immigration from Mexico, Gonzales told Wolf Blitzer on CNN that no immigration documentation exists for three of his grandparents and they may have entered and resided in the United States illegally.

An honors student at MacArthur High School in Houston, Gonzales enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1973, for a four year term of enlistment, serving for two years at Fort Yukon, Alaska before being accepted to the United States Air Force Academy in 1975. In 1977, he transferred to Rice University (Houston, Texas), where he was a member of Lovett College and earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1979; he never completed the remaining two years of his USAF obligation; he then earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1982. He was the only one of his siblings to finish college. He has been married twice: he and his first wife, Diane Clemens, divorced in 1985; he and his second wife, Rebecca Turner Gonzales, have three sons.  He is the first Hispanic American to hold the position of Attorney General.

Events of note: 

- Criticized, by Democrats, for the NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program.

- Criticized, mostly by Democrats, for his part in drafting the Detainee Treatment memorandum which allegedly condoned torture of detainees.

- Criticized, mostly by Democrats with some cannibalistic Republicans on board, for the firings of 8 U.S. Attorneys believed by Gonzalez and President Bush to not be executing their responsibilities of their office in a manner consistent with the policy agenda of the Bush Administration.  Six of the eight are Republicans appointed by Bush.

- Is prosecuting the mastermind of the 1993 and 2001 World Trade Center bombings, Khalid Sheik Mohammed.  Is prosecuting the mastermind of the 1998 African embassy bombings.  Is prosecuting the bombers of the USS Cole.  Is prosecuting the murderer of Daniel Pearle.  All of whom are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It will be a tragedy the likes only seen in Shakespear's "King Lear" or "Hamlet" if Gonzalez is fired or he resigns when he, and his staff, have broken no laws, have done nothing unethical, and have only been trying to do their job. The day is coming when only fools or idiots are willing to work in Republican presidential administrations given the climate of legal terror that the competent ones will see hanging over every department in the administrations.

So, if Reno didn't resign for all she did or didn't do, why should Gonzalez?