Gonzales Flops

Alberto Gonzales solidified his reputation as an incompetent with a breathtakingly unsuccessful press conference this afternoon, but it remains to be seen if he ends up looking more like a terminal naif, a shifty crook or, most likely, a political tool.

The great folks at Crooks and Liars have the video of Gonzales's brief press conference — and sudden lunge to escape from tough questions.

It didn't take long for the blogs to take advantage of this target-rich environment. Start with this Daily Kos diarist's refresher as to what's going on as A Gloved Alberto Gonzales Plans Search To Find Real Killer — pithly summarized by Josh Marshall at TPM as “Gonzales: I'm going to get to the bottom of what Harriet and I did.” And, one might add, why I sent off my aides to lie to Congress. Oh, and said some things myself in Congressional testimony that now seem past their sell-by date.

If you want the collected snark, a lot of it is at Needlenose.

And your latest update of the furious developments today in this widening scandal at The Carpetbagger Report, The dirge of the purge.

Next up, one hopes: what were the US Attorneys who were not fired willing to do to keep their jobs?

Meanwhile, it's hard to believe Gonzales can last two weeks if this is the best he can do. Ominously for his future, the NYT reports that a White House spokesperson said he's doing a heck of a job,

The White House took the unusual step of having [Presidential Counselor to the President Dan] Bartlett conduct a hurried briefing with reporters in Mérida, Mexico. He said the president had “all the confidence in the world” in Mr. Gonzales

Then again, the Veep is less popular than torture and he's not going anywhere, is he?