Orrin Hatch, your toolness is showing

By Creature

Soon after agreeing that "of course" Alberto Gonzales has credibility problems, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), appearing on This Week, made sure his ass-kissing bona fides were still intact [h/t my dvr]:

HATCH: Let me tell you: Alberto Gonzales is not going to retire. He is not going to resign. I have a lot of respect for the man. He is willing to hang in there. I think he's done a lot of good things down there, even though, yeah, he's been used as a punching bag by the Democrats and, I might add, some Republicans who I chatted with, and said, yeah, they have gone too far. Not just Democrats, but some of the Republicans themselves. All I'm saying is, is that you know, we've had all of these hearings, we've had of this bluster, we've had all of these documents, and there isn't one evidence of impropriety and yet they've built this like it's some sort of a big scandal and it's not.

Orrin Hatch is right on three points: Gonzales certainly has a credibility problem, he will not retire, and he will not resign. As the New York Times opines today, he must be impeached.

And, it seems, Senator Hatch was the only one willing to go on the TeeVee and defend the attorney general. ThinkProgress brings us this from FOX News Sunday:

Chris Wallace revealed that no conservative would willingly defend Gonzales on Fox. "By the way, we invited White House officials and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee to defend Attorney General Gonzales," said Wallace. "We had no takers."

I guess FOX News lost Orrin's number: 1-800-GWB-TOOL.

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)