President Bush has issued a statement praising Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ performance before the Senate yesterday, saying he was “pleased” and that it “showed that nothing improper occurred.” Given the formal nature of the release, he stopped short of saying, “Gonzie, you did a heck of a job.”
I missed the hearings yesterday but, from what I gather, the president is alone in his assessment. Not only did most of the Republicans on the committee, including conservative stalwarts like Sam Brownback and Tom Coburn, directly or indirectly tell Gonzales to resign, even the staunchest administration supporters in the blogosphere thought it was dreadful.
Patrick Frey: “I can’t tell you how pathetic he sounds. Please resign. Put us out of our misery. Please.”
Ed Morrissey: “Gonzales is toast.”
Byron York: “a disastrous morning.”
Paul Mirengoff is the only prominent right-of-center blogger I’ve found even somewhat supportive. Even he allows that he would “prefer a more hands-on Attorney General.”
Hugh Hewitt has been too busy trying to figure out whether the families of the Virginia Tech shooting victims can sue NBC for “the intentional infliction of mental or emotional distress” to comment thus far.
