I want a framed 8 x 10

of his mugshot. Crooks and Liars--maybe the cleverest title on the 'net--reports that one of those fired US attorneys states that the Justice Department's inspector general is likely to recommend criminal charges for former Attorney-General Alberto Gonzalez. John McKay, who was the US Attorney for the Western District of Washington, says that he was questioned for eight hours by agents from the IG's office. McKay predicts that the charges will be brought.

While Gonzalez certainly deserves to be indicted--and, very likely, convicted--don't hang by your thumbs til it happens. Whoever is sitting in the Attorney-General's chair, the idea of indicting his predecessor will be inconceivable as long as W is in the Oval Office and Deadeye Dick in the bunker. The AG who indicted Gonzalez would disappear into one of those CIA black sites in a nanosecond.

Let's face it, the administration will do anything to keep Alberto from being tempted to tattle. Gonzalez may not be very bright--Harvard Law degree notwithstanding--but he knows where the bodies are buried. And he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd let interrogators pull out his fingernails without spilling the beans. (Just a thought, but shouldn't prosecutors be entitled to apply the same "enhanced interrogation" techniques on Gonzalez that he approved for use on others?) Indeed, the prospect of 7-10 in Club Fed would probably get him to start babbling like a brook.

Which would mean pardon. Bad as W's ratings are, they would nosedive if he were to issue a pardon to Gonzalez, and even more so if it came prior to a conviction. So, all strings will be pulled to make sure that no charges are brought.

(Will W. pardon Gonzalez on his way out of the Oval Office, to head off prosecution under a Democratic administration? That's a different story altogether.)