I smell Mexican barbecue. You?

Former Department of Justice Aide, Kyle Sampson, took the stand before Congress today and he made one thing perfectly clear for you mo-fos – he’s nobody’s fall guy!

I honestly did not expect it. Granted, he looked about as shaky as Kanye West calling Bush out on Katrina but he made it perfectly clear that Gonzales did, indeed, “deliberate” and “discuss” the selection, and subsequent firing of, eight US Attorneys.

In related news, a White House Spokesperson backed away from Bush’s unconditional support of the embattled Attorney General with a snarky, “Mr. Gonzales will have to speak for himself.”

Damn homie. That’s cold. The man did what y’all told him to do, how you told him to do it and now y’all gonna cut him loose. In the streets, that’s called…well, I don’t exactly know what it’s called in the streets as I grew up in a cul-de-sac but I’m sure I could find a suitable Tupac lyric.

Now, one of y’all owes me a ten spot. I called it the minute this story lasted beyond a week: won’t no way in hot Hades the little Mexican man wasn’t going to take the heat for this. No way. I actually feel badly for him.

You’ll notice that Sampson is less emphatic about Karl Rove’s involvement. That man said, “I’m a Mormon but I ain’t no fool.”

Rove is now, officially, more gangsta than Scarface. Fiddy and other assorted wanna-be gangstas need to study THIS man’s hustle. He’s as elusive as a ghost and as pervasive as ether.

He’s everywhere and nowhere, if the burden is proof.

Sure, he negatively impacts the lives of millions but if you can remove yourself from the outcome you have to admit he is pretty fly for a white guy.

Even with Rove’s name all up in emails and memos Sampson refused to “recollect” a single instance of Rove’s office exerting any pressure.

Suuuuuuuure.

His name is like Kleenex now – generic for any powers that be.

I tell you, one day the history books are going to whitewash this administration and release only ¼ of the real behind-the-scenes story and it will still give believers of democracy nightmares.

In other news, I keep meaning to discuss all of the great stuff happening in the presidential race. I shall try to break down the top contenders on both sides in the coming week. To hold you 'till then:

-An actor?! You got lucky with the first one Republicans, don’t be greedy.
-Hillary’s BUYING endorsements now?!
-Edwards got a nice sympathy bump. Can he sustain it? I definitely felt a shifting of the polls on the day he made the announcement about his wife’s cancer. We shall see…
-Guiliani? Really? This guy is more abrasive than a Jewish mother of a 40-year-old unwed woman. Get outta here.

And Hello Again

I beg all of your pardons, as I have been more dedicated to finishing up the semester and relaunching www.tressiemc.com than spewing forth my political diatribe. In the words of Rakim: I shouldn’t have left you without an opinion to cling to. Well, it could have been Rakim. Shut up, you know I suck at pop culture references.

But I cannot suck at them anymore than this administration seems to suck at comprehending the inherent “politicking” that must be done when your party loses control of Congress. They can say what they want about Bill but at least he knew how to pander to the camera while throwing punches behind the scenes.

This president, however, is living up to his self-professed title of Decider while simultaneously channeling every old Western “shoot off at high noon” posture every struck.

Since my last post we have witnessed his staunch defense of the indefensible Donald Rumsfield…and his subsequent replacement of Donald Rumsfield.

We have watched him needle the left about pork in the national budget while failing to mention its bipartisan appeal.

We have watched him refuse to engage Iran and Syria in bilateral talks to help create an environment in the Middle East where Iraq has the slightest chance of survival should we ever leave.

He has looked up the word veto and upon discovering it’s meaning and has threatened to exceed his previous grand total of ONE.

And as of my last check as midnight my time today he was still showing support for his beleaguered Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez.

Now, say what you will about this issue reeking of retaliation, the truth of the matter is the President’s office does indeed have the right to fire U.S. Attorneys at will. The problem is this issue left behind the discussion of legality the minute Mr. Gonzalez proved himself incapable of towing the line with any conviction or believability.

Now it just all seems to support the idea – right or wrong – that this administration actively participates in subversive and illegal dealings to advance its agenda.

Saying, “Hell yeah! I fired ‘em. They wasn’t my kind of people. I like good people. Good people work for me” may have left a bad taste in folks’ mouths but the issue would have been dead.

Instead this issue has lived for over two weeks now – an eon in political time – and taken on an almost Nixon-ish air. Average folks can’t tell you the details of this issue but every day it takes up another corner above the fold or crawls across the bottom of the screen they get the feeling that something ain’t quite right.

And it is that feeling, more so than email communications that point out blatant inconsistencies in Gonzalez’s previous assertion that he had no part in choosing who got fired, that will linger long after the fall guy takes his hit for the team.

Now…who wants to put money on if and how the whole issue of Monica Goodling choosing to, in the words of Dave Chappelle, “plead da FIF!” will play out?

C’mon! I got that reference right!