AG Alberto Gonzales lied to Congress

OK, everyone already knew that but his former Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, has confirmed in Senate testimony today. From the AP:

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wrongly stated he was not involved in discussions about the firings of federal prosecutors, his former chief of staff told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

"I don't think the attorney general's statement that he was not involved in any discussions of U.S. attorney removals was accurate," testified Kyle Sampson, who quit this month as Gonzales' top aide. "I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign."

Sampson said Gonzales attended a crucial meeting on the firings Nov. 27, 10 days before they were carried out.

"Wrongly stated" in this case is a journalistic euphemism for "lied his fucking ass off". Gonzo is toast.

Even more interesting (IMHO) was Sampson's perspective on why the US Attorneys were targeted. His explaination, perhaps accidentally, revealed one of the governing truths of this Administration.

In earlier testimony Sampson said the prosecutors were fired last year because they did not sufficiently support President Bush’s priorities, defending a standard that Democrats called "highly improper."

"The distinction between 'political' and 'performance-related' [emphasis mine] reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial," he said. "A U.S. attorney who is unsuccessful from a political perspective ... is unsuccessful."

Absolutely true. To the Administration, performance is not measured by any sort of rational standard of competence or ability to execute. Ones job performance is measured by the degree of loyalty, even fealty, one exhibits to the White House and the President. It was true with Michael “heckuva job” Brown. It was true with Donald Rumsfeld. It was true with Harriet Myers. Brown was way over his head with Katrina. Iraq completely baffled Rummy. Harriet Myers had no business whatsoever sitting on the Supreme Court. Yet each was loyal to Bush to the hilt and as such, they lingered in their positions despite utterly failing at same (or in Myers case, just gave up in the face of impossible odds) .

In Bushworld, good toadying is far more important than good governance.