just want to belatedly discuss the gonzales hearing, which i listened to. the guy is about as bright and formidable as a little clod of dirt: he got absolutely stomped. i do find it a bit ironic that, though being a torture enthusiast doesn't disqualify you for the ag job, firing some us attorneys might. at any rate, these rove folks can barely even pretend to pretend that they might be concerned about anything in the legal world besides their own political advantage; they can't even pretend to pretend that the justice department has any independence from the white house political operation.

my favorite moment in the whole thing was provided by orrin hatch. now even if you were alberto gonzales's actual bitch, you'd have to see that substantial issues are at stake and that it would be important to try to substantively figure out what happened. but hatch was asking questions like this: "mr. gonzales, what are some of the basic functions of the justice department?" it was as though hatch not only wanted everyone to understand that he is the merest idiot, he wants to grandstand about it. i seem to remember similar passages of outright cretinism in the clarence thomas confirmation hearing etc. and of course if he's thinking about what he's doing at all, he's expressing contempt for the issue and the hearing itself, which is strange in a situation in which even people like sessions, cornyn, and coburn obviously have some pretty serious misgivings.