Novak: ‘Poor Gonzales’ Is Terrible, ‘But There Are A Lot Of Bad People In This Administration’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/14/novak-gonzales/

Novak: ‘Poor Gonzales’ Is Terrible, ‘But There Are A Lot Of Bad People In This Administration’

This weekend on Bloomberg Television, columnist Robert Novak offered the following “defense” of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

He’s terrible. He shouldn’t be there. But there’s a lot of bad people in this administration.

Novak twice referred to the Attorney General as “poor Gonzales,” casting him as an unfortunate victim of congressional oversight. In a partisan jab, Novak claimed Democrats are “pounding on this poor Gonzales who never should have been in a high government post in the first place” in order to shift attention from the Iraq funding debate. But Novak then acknowledged that Republicans “think he ought to go, too.”

Watch it at link~

Novak said, “The president is stuck with these subpar people he brought up from Texas. That’s a failing on President Bush’s part.” A failing that Novak would prefer we not pay attention to.

Transcript:

NOVAK: Margaret, the president can get rid of him any time he wants to. There’s no political setback. It would be a benefit. The president is stuck with these subpar people he brought up from Texas. That’s a failing on President Bush’s part. Now, this hearing produced no new evidence, no new questions, no new answers. It is the Democrats that are having trouble with serious questions like funding the iraq war, deciding what to do on it, passing legislation. And so pounding on this poor Gonzalez who never should have been in a high government post in the first place is all they can do. And the Republicans, they decided there’s enough of it, but let me tell you, they think he ought to go, too.

CARLSON: I didn’t say the president couldn’t get rid of him. I said he can’t get rid of him because he needs an enabler like Gonzalez in that job. And by the way, there was new evidence. A ninth U.S. Attorney who was asked to leave. But of course about that, he knows nothing. He didn’t even know how many attorneys he oversaw in the Justice Department. He underestimated it by 50%.

NOVAK: He’s terrible. He shouldn’t be there. But there’s a lot of bad people in this administration. But I think if you weren’t so hooked to the Democratic talking points, Margaret, you would know that they’re in trouble on substantive issues and they have to pound on poor Gonzalez to get anything in the press.