Gonzales Guilty Until Proven Innocent

There's really nothing Alberto Gonzales can do when testifying today that will satisfy the smug, arrogant Charles Schumer, an ideological hack if ever there was one.

Schumer is pathologically obsessed with Karl Rove, and there no doubt this charade will veer off into conspiracy theories spun by a fevered mind filled with hatred.

Thursday's blockbuster hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee will put Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the test as he defends his botched handling of the news that eight U.S. attorneys were removed from duty last December.

Gonzales has already told the committee that he has nothing to hide, but committee member Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, said no fewer than three times on Wednesday that the "burden of proof is on the attorney general" to explain why the prosecutors were fired.

In a preview of his testimony, released Sunday, Gonzales concedes that the Justice Department's handling of the dismissals ended up creating an "unfortunate and undignified public spectacle," but at no time were any of the prosecutors' fates decided based on political considerations aimed at encouraging or killing partisan prosecutions.

Say what you want about Gonzales and the job he's done, but this partisan witch-hunt conducted by Schumer and his cronies is petty and vindictive.

"The attorney general and his supporters seem to think that simply denying U.S. attorneys were fired for political reasons exonerates him. That just wont wash," Schumer said.

Schumer, chairman of the Judiciary panel's courts subcommittee, which has oversight of U.S. attorneys, said Gonzales needs to reveal who made the initial complaints, who investigated the complaints and why some attorneys were fired while others were not.