Columnist: Bush is Boss, Gonzales Here to Stay
Media commentators who played up last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing as U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ last chance to save his job lost track of two key points, a columnist writes in today’s Indianapolis Star. President Bush is the only one with the power to fire Gonzales. And President Bush wants him to stay in office.
In fact, the Gonzales song-and-dance before the Judiciary Committee may offer another practical example of the Bush administration’s superlative political skills, according to Ruben Navarrette.
“The White House strategy all along appears to have been to put Gonzales front and center as a decoy for White House political adviser Karl Rove, who may have exerted undue influence over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year,” he writes. “As strategies go, it’s first-rate. Gonzales gets a little bloodied, but Rove gets away. And, in the end, both Rove and Gonzales keep their jobs.”
