Author: Rove could hold key to Gonzales' future as Attorney General

Rawstory

Author: Rove could hold key to Gonzales' future as Attorney General

David Edwards and Nicholas Burkett
Published: Tuesday July 31, 2007

With the recent incidence of Bush officials coming to each other's rescue, one is prompted to ask how far, exactly, these loyalties run.

The question seems particularly appropriate in the wake of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' trouble with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Involved in warrantless wiretaps and data-mining, the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys, and subsequent conflicting statements, Gonzales is taking a lot of heat -- including a bill introduced today by a liberal Democrat seeking his impeachment.

So what of Gonzales' loyal compatriots? And what impact are Gonzales' allegiances likely to have on his political career? Keith Olbermann asked this question Monday in an interview with James Moore, co-author of Bush's Brain and contributor to the Huffington Post.

Olbermann pointed out that "in [Gonzales'] five appointments to public positions - spanning over a decade - he has never been chosen by anyone other than George W. Bush."

The question, then, was what the outcome of such a long string of demonstrable loyalties will be; that is, how likely is Bush to tell Gonzales to step down, and how likely is Gonzales to step down if instructed to do so?

Moore identified Karl Rove as the key determinant in Gonzales' future. In response to rumored suggestions that this will be Gonzales' last week, Moore said, "I don't really see that happening unless there's a calculus where Rove says to the President, 'We gotta cut him loose.'"

The following video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast on July 30.

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