AttorneyGate -- Bush, Nixon, and A Constitutional Crisis

It's even odds at this point if Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will make it past Friday without filing for unemployment. The 24-Hour Cable News Channels are covering "Attorneygate" almost non-stop, and yet the average American hasn't the faintest clue what the whole furor is about. As usual, the Democratic and Republican talking heads have their own version of events to present to the distinguishing American media consumer - but for once both sides are pretty much telling the truth.

Just, it's only half of the truth.

Nevertheless, the Donkeys and Elephants are almost caricatures of themselves in the media spotlight. The Republicans still loyal to Bush smoothly dismiss the entire affair as a political ploy, spending altogether too much time trying to sound right and not nearly enough trying to do right. Slick and well organized, they present their side of the story with staccato precision, hammering each incontrovertible soundbite home with a well practiced smile.

The Democrats are, as always, almost incapable of constructing a complete sentence. Stammering and ineffectual, their rambling and expository statements wander far beyond the bounds of the 30-second news-clip and leave behind a confused and unconvinced audience at once certain that something important was said and yet altogether unsure of what it was.

Given this sort of performance, it is a miracle that the Democrats have managed to nail even Libby to the wall. Any successes in the investigation of the attorney scandal are almost gifts from the Executive branch which continues to behave and react as if a friendly Congress still looks down Pennsylvania Avenue. Despite Presidential incompetence in managing it, "Attorneygate" as the scandal was almost doomed to be known, is not about illegal dismissals or partisan politics.

It is about Executive Power - just like everything else these last six years.