Ruben Navarette Jr., Piñata...

As predicted in an earlier post, the gringo journalists have begun the Alberto Gonzales/piñata references, only tell me it ain't so...Matt Lauer! Glenn Beck I would expect, Rush for sure, but not Matt!

In a conversation with the Ragin' Cajun himself, strategist James Carville, Lauer opined that Dems would be sad to see their "piñata" gone, no longer available to knock around anymore. Gringo blogs insisted the remark was racist. As for me, I don't know, more lazy choice of metaphor I would argue.

Best part of the report, though, is the definition of a piñata provided for the culturally challenged: "A piñata is a brightly-coloured paper container filled with sweets and/or toys. It is generally suspended on a rope from a tree branch or ceiling and is commonly used during Mexican celebrations. A person then swings at the pinata in an attempt to break it open and release the gifts." Man, talk about a description sucking the fun out of something. Suddenly my tenth birthday party is not such a fond memory anymore.

What saddens me most about Gonzales's resignation, however, is I can no longer read High-spanic columnist Ruben Navarette's weekly defenses of ol' Al. The apologist rhetoric always provided a welcome mid-week chuckle, or downright chortle, depending upon its degree of twisted logic. Yesterday's column was typical of Jr.'s absurd, inexplicable, and pathological defense of the guy who wrote the torture memo, called the Geneva convention "quaint," and named his brown kid "Jerrot."

Pundits kept referring to it as a “fall from grace.” Dan Balz of The Washington Post wrote that “(Gonzales') image, once the inspirational story of a young man who rose from poverty to become one of the most powerful Hispanic officials in the country, has been badly tarnished by his troubled tenure at the Justice Department.”

What hooey. I don't recall such “tarnished image” rhetoric when Karl Rove resigned. Why do the media insist on framing Gonzales' stint as the nation's first Hispanic attorney general as a social experiment that went bad?

First of all, no one called Gonzales's stint as the United States Attorney General a "social experiment." What citizens expected was a qualified lawyer to defend the Constitution, not eliminate Habeas Corpus and lobby for the ability of the government to listen in on phone conversations without a warrant.

And as far as Gonzales' tenure going "bad?" How about lying to Congress, "not recalling" 72 times during sworn testimony, or visiting the hospital bed of a near-dead John Ashcroft to get him to sign on to an illegal domestic surveillance program?

Funniest line of the column is Jr. quoting Al waxing nostalgic over the Attorney General's idyllic days back in Texas, far from the scrutiny of a national press corps: “'Probably the most disappointing thing I've observed,'” [Gonzales] said, “'(is that Washington is) so different in terms of what I observed in Texas government. Maybe I was naive in terms of how government should work. What I saw in Texas was what I thought was productive and good for the citizens of Texas.'"

Yeah, like covering up of then Governor George Bush's drunk driving conviction, and overseeing the conveyor belt of Capitol Punishment better known as the Texas judicial system.

Good thing Navarete is not resigning too. Vato's such an easy piñata.

Comments

[Karen]

Did you know that Gonzalez didn't write the torture memo? It was written by Jay Bybee, at the time an attorney in the Ashcroft Justice Department. Where is Bybee today? On the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, confirmed by among others, Democratic Senators Schumer and Reid. They're hypocrites.

And I'm no fan of Gonzalez, but it's ridiculous to see the media depict him as the architect of the administration's torture policy. They would have done it with or without Gonzalez.

What really sad in addition to all the damage that's been done, is the fact that psychologically Gonzalez is a peon--Harvard couldn't change that. And the people in power who need a flunky can smell that psychological makeup a mile away.

SIGH...