Is Gonzales "The Departed"; Is John Danforth "The Insider"?



What a difference wording makes. What is the difference between departing, and being fired? That's the question -- well, one question anyway -- that the DC Chattering Class is trying to figure out.

As Drudgereport reports, "Senate passes legislation to end Gonzales' authority to fill U.S. attorney vacancies without Senate confirmation." Up until the day after the 2006 Mid-Term elections, The President was considered a man of his word. Then he fired Rumsfeld, without warning. That's politics; The President is obviously still a man of his word, but we cannot take him literally anymore with regards to his cabinet dealings with the political realities of the entropy of a Second Term winding down and an oppositional Congress. Now, as The President signals his "support" of Gonzales, CBS News' Katie Couric reported on Friday that Gonzales was going the way of Rummy. But now we learn he will not be "fired." He might depart. Vive la difference. From Politico:

"President Bush this morning telephoned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, one of the few remaining Texans who came to Washington for Bush's first term, to try to buck up his friend after word leaked that GOP officials operating at the behest of the White House have begun seeking a possible successor.

"The president called Gonzales from the Oval Office at about 7:15 a.m. 'They had a good conversation about the status of the U.S. attorney issue,' deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino said. 'The president also reaffirmed his strong backing and support for the attorney general.'

"A Republican source said Tuesday that Bush is 'unmoved' and that Gonzales will not be pushed or fired, but instead will depart if he concludes he has lost his effectiveness because of the furor over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

"At the same time, the president will be prepared if Gonzales steps aside. Republicans close to the White House continued to discuss potential replacements, including John Danforth, an Episcopal minister and former Republican senator from Missouri."

As they say in Hollywood, "Perception is reality," so, if Gonzales goes, he wasn't "fired," he "departed." Well-respected on both sides of the aisle, Ambassador Danforth, should he follow Attorney General Gonzales, will face no trouble with confirmation.