Digging In

I think I covered all the relevant facts about Purgegate in my earlier entry, but some final thoughts on strategy for now before I move on to a more pressing subject.

The President said that he was oh so very sad this has all gotten so political (translation: I wish this hadn't been exposed and that Democrats would just leave me alone already). Firstly, this is pathetic since it was the political machinations of his crew (ranking U.S. Attorneys based on loyalty, forcing some Attorneys to pursue false investigations for political ends and punishing those who didn't, blaming 'poor performance' for those asked to resign, lying to Congress about all of that, etc) that got us here. But secondly, the President could've stopped this political headache for himself a week or two ago. Before the Rove/Miers revelations, the fault for this lay solely with the Attorney General. Had the President taken his resignation quietly when the first calls came, this scandal would be currently fizzling out.

But no, he wants to show those Democrats who's boss and appease the base. So he fights.

Now, with his not-exactly-unexpected defiance, he is threatening to turn what was a medium-sized political scandal into a full-blown constitutional crisis over "executive privilege" (a fight President Nixon took all the way to the Supreme Court 33 years ago and lost). President Bush is now responsible for escalating the very scandal that he is shedding crocodile tears for keeping Washington from going about its more important business.

Is this guy a moron or what? He should've quit while he was behind.

[UPDATE: More shades of Nixon... an 18-day gap in the emails the White House released.

UPDATE #2: A couple of the missing emails have been dug up.]