Alberto Gonzales has his back to the wall because of his own mismanagement of a fictitious crisis. He needs to resign.

I wrote earlier that the U.S. Attorney flap is much ado about nothing. U.S. Attorneys are political appointees who serve at the whim of the President, just like any other appointed flak. The system was designed that way by Congress, and it has served us well as another check and balance in our system. It is the administrative branch, not Congress or the courts, that is responsible for prosecuting federal crimes.

Oh how the Bush administration has floundered on this issue! The early resignation of Gonzales’ chief of staff was a demoralizing surrender to the partisan mob in Congress. The resignation gave legitimacy to the congressional critics, and suggested that the Bush administration had actually done something wrong when they have not.

Why did Gonzales push for the resignation? Why is the Justice Department hanging their heads in shame when they should be giving a resounding SO WHAT message? Why is everyone in the administration stammering and running for cover?

A possible explanation is that perhaps someone disobeyed a Bush directive on these firings, and that is why the entire administration is acting guilty. They screwed it up from the beginning, and we are seeing Bush’s displeasure playing out in public only now. Who really knows if that fancy is true, but something appears to be rotten in Denmark.

A more plausible explanation is that Alberto Gonzalez has simply managed this invented “scandal” horribly. One thing is for sure. George Bush delegates authority like no other prior president. He let’s his folks do their job.

So we are here in the midst of a phony scandal for some reason. And since the administration has given the scandal legitimacy, Congress has a legitimate oversight role. Too bad, but that’s the way it is. They are holding hearings and that’s their constitutional job.

Now enters another Gonzales employee, Monica Goodling, who took the 5th amendment rather than testify before Congress. Sorry folks, but that isn’t acceptable. Gonzales should have fired her for not cooperating with Congress as is her professional duty. He didn’t and it just furthers the mess.

Alberto Gonzales has mismanaged a molehill into a mountain. He needs to go and I hope that he resigns quickly.