New Leadership based on the Rule of Law to head the Department of Justice? I seriously doubt it.

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Well.  Yes! Alberto Gonzalez has resigned, according to the news.  He is the Attorney General who governed not by his love for the Rule of Law, but by blind faithfulness to his capataz (boss) George Walker Bush.   It is rumored, the news continues to state, that Michael Chertoff will be nominated by George Walker Bush to succeed Alberto Gonzalez at the Justice Department. Chertoff seems to be the peg that is good for whatever ails Junior Boy. He fits whatever hole needs to patch up. From replacement for Michael Brown’s Fema following the mismanagement of the Katrina relief efforts, to Director of Homeland Security after Kerrick was forced to withdraw his nomination for Director of Homeland Security, to now, as head of the Justice Department, if he indeed happens to be Bush’s nominee as head of America’s Department of Justice.  As such, you can expect none out of Chertoff.

   

If Gonzalez’ tenure as AG was marred by “Beto’s” blind allegiance and extreme servitude to Bush ... we can expect Chertoff’s tenure at the DOJ to be one of extreme allegiance to his rightwing, gut-feeling, political ideology.

   

Speaking to the New York Times following the news of Gonzalez’ resignation, Senator Chuck Schumer is quoted as saying that,

“It has been a long and difficult struggle, but at last the attorney general has done the right thing and stepped down. For the previous six months, the Justice Department has been virtually nonfunctional, and desperately needs new leadership.”

  

“New Leadership?”  I asked.  “Leadership based on the Rule of Law?” I continued to ask.  Pardon me for saying so, Senator Schumer, but coming from Michael Gut-Feeling Chertoff we can expect anything, whatever, but nothing that comes from the Rule of Law.  But, you seem to know that.  In your answer to a reporter during your 11:15 AM press conference today, August 27th, you replied that Chertoff’s track as an administrator of Homeland Security leaves much to be desired and, you added that his track in legal positions leaves him open to many questions about his faithfulness to the rule of law.

  

Thank you.  Thank you for knowing that. Now, a word to the wise, that is precisely what Bush is looking for in an AG.  He is looking for a man whose adherence to the rule of law is questionable.  A man will give Bush and his crimes a blank check, just like Beto himself did, even if the new Attorney General’s impulse to do so comes from a totally different place than Beto’s allegiance to Bush did. Bush is looking for a man capable of going on witch-hunts, a man who can pull out whatever Bush needs of putrid garbage, thin air, or gut-feelings.

  

In the end, Beto grew to be no greater than his ancestors in this land, bricklayers serving their master.  It is sad to see that having had the opportunity in his hands to build a different, more complete journey for himself and his descendants, Beto Gonzalez squandered it all away and really went no further than his ancestors in the journey of life. In the end, he was not a man capable of independent thought, nor was he a man capable of serving the Rule of Law.  He was simply a servant to Bush’s whims. Who will ever use Beto Gonzalez in their employ again?  Will he become Bush’s personal attorney?  Will the Walker-Bush fortune ever repay Gonzalez in dollar amount what his service to Junior cost him in reputation?  In the end, Beto Gonzalez proved himself to be just ... a bricklayer, a mason serving his master’s need to commit crimes against humanity free from the gauntlet of prosecution.  Chertoff’s ideology is rooted in something much different than that and in the end may be rooted in the same kind of putrid ground which gave us Ken Starr and which breeds many “righteous” ones who are usually on the wrong side of morals, truth, and justice.

  

Second word to the wise. Don’t ever expect a Rule of Law kind of person to be nominated by Bush to replace Alberto Gonzalez. In his press statement this morning, Bush sounded like he is sore as hell. He struck no conciliatory notes at all and blamed Beto’s woes on a (democratic?) political witch-hunt.

  

It is a trademark of the Bushes that when the toilet is clogged, the just sit on it to shit some more.

Authors Bio:
E.T.SIMON ... Keeping the Bio Real and Transparent ...
E. T. SIMON is more often like a transplanted palm tree from the land of Santiago de Cuba where she was born to a Cuban, Tulane University, lawyer educated father and, a Mississippi, mother, great-granddaughter of American Revolutionary War hero, Brigadier General Andrew Pickens who is credited with the victory against the British in the Battle of the Cowpens. Although at times, E.T. Simon is more like, the fruit of the pecan of her Mississippi grandparents pecan farm of long ago, or even like the Sycamore so firmly rooted in the Florida Peninsula. As such, the daughter of bi-cultural, bi-lingual parents, E.T. Simon navigated the bi-cultural ties, bi-lingual shores of her birth, while learning to appreciate Cuban and Southern cuisine and cultures, from a very early age.

At the age of 15, two years after her mother's death, she dreamt about running away from her home to join the , "Bohemians" of the 1950s in New York's Greenwich Village and become a writer. She did not. In 1961, at the age of 18 her father sent her across the pond to her mother's family in Mississippi in an effort to keep her from falling prey to Fidel Castro's repressive agents who were on her trail for her opposition to Fidel Castro.
Bumpy rides, or not, In 1976, E.T. Simon, after twelve years of part time studies, with in-between times-off for parenting, obtained her B.A. in English with a Major in Literature and a double minor in Psychology and Philosophy. In 1985 she obtained her Master's Degree in Counseling and in 1987 her License in Marriage and Family Therapy.
Her quest to pursue a MFA in Creative Writing was derailed when a stuffed shirt Chaucer Literature Professor graded her paper on The Prioress Tale short of the A she needed to establish her credentials in the MFA Creative Writing Program, even while receiving the support of the Academic Dean who told her with a certain urgency, "don't stop writing. You'll find a way."
Prior to pursuing her graduate studies in counseling, Ms. E.T. Simon joined a Creative Writing Group where she honed in on some of the art and craft of writing and had the pleasure of attending poetry readings by Tess Gallagher, Denise Levertov, Rutabaga Rose and others.
Following her 1985 graduation, Ms. E.T. Simon proceeded to work as a counselor/family therapist until 1998 when, following surgery, she became a near recluse and has remained a near recluse for the last twelve years or so.
It was during those years that she worked as a counselor/family therapist that Ms. E.T. Simon learned that grief is a powerful agent which often contributes to the derailing of families; that human hearts can bury grief for generations and generations with the grief popping up unexpectedly as a symptom anywhere, sometimes even in someone else further along in the generations.
Ms. E.T. Simon also learned that when careful unearthing of buried grief happens and a person is enabled to truly grieve the pain of a loss they have been holding on to for years, then rebalancing of the derailment takes place and true healing occurs.

Writing is a lifelong love of E.T. Simon's, and whether she kept her writings buried in dusty drawers, or shared them with university professors, writers' groups, editors, or published them, the writer's flame burns undying in her. The flame of truth also burns in her along with the need to stand up for the underdog, of which, today, she finds herself to be one. This blended well in her throughout her years of computer activism for peace and social justice.

E.T. Simon's articles have been published under the name of TERESA SIMON-NOBLE, the pen name of ELENA DUMAS; and at times, under the additional pen name of SKYAGUNSTA, or SKYAGUNSTA PICKENS, both of which are a direct reference to her great-great-grandfather Brigadier General Andrew Pickens who was named "Skyagunsta," by Native Americans who came to appreciate him as a man of conscience. Please also know that whether the articles have been signed with one name, or another; with a pen name, or another, the writings have always come straight from my heart, my perception, and my core values.
In other words, it has always been me, and only me, writing the articles.