Odds and Ends: Special All Purgegate Edition!

The Alberto Gonzales death rattle and new revelations of the backstage political shenanigans behind the U.S. Attorney firings are the big story of the day, so let's catch up.

President Bush continues to avoid reality this morning by "calling his longtime friend [Gonzales] to express unwavering support in the face of calls for his resignation". Heckuva job, Abu Gonzo!

They also denied a McClatchy newspapers report that they're searching for his replacement.

Meanwhile, the White House took a major dump last night, releasing thousands of documents and emails relating to this issue. Talking Points Memo has a look at what's in these documents and Salon's Tim Grieve has a look at what's still missing.

Most obvious revelation? The White House really, really didn't like Patrick Fitzgerald.

Meanwhile, in a completely unprecendented move, the White House is moving to bar Karl Rove and Harriet Miers from testifying under oath to Congress about their roles in all this. The White House then offered the following 'compromise'... "to make political strategist Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers available for interviews — but not testimony under oath — before congressional committees investigating the firing of eight federal prosecutors." It would be behind closed doors and no transcripts would be allowed. Senator Leahy: No deal.

And, while AG Gonzales still has his job for now, the Senate voted 94-2 (!!) "to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies". Kate O'Beirne at the conservative National Review says the reason Republicans aren't going to the mat on this is that many still feel burned for listening to the White House and standing by Rumsfeld last Fall.

Finally, Kevin Drum cuts through the conservative spin that is out there on this.

[UPDATE 6pm: Just finished watching the President's press conference (video- here). Very defensive, very nervous. For the most part, he just reiterated what I mentioned above. No new news here. He's digging in.

The President did, however, say that he's very upset that things have gotten so political... over his politically-motivated firings of select U.S. Attorneys. He also had a message to Democrats: Stop being so partisan and insisting that my staff whom I swear did nothing wrong testify under oath! No show trials! He blew off a question about how some of the firings appear to have impeded investigations against key Republicans. Threw in that old GOP standby about 'voter fraud' investigations for good measure. Finally, when asked about whether the Attorney General can really do his job if he no longer has the support of either party, Bush retorted that Gonzales had his support and that's all that matters. His majesty has spoken.]