Gonzales ‘testified’ before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, apparently to exonerate himself from the scandal involving the fired US attorneys last year. He is taking quite a beating but I am doubtful he will lose his job over the event. If so, he’ll join the ranks of disgraced administration personnel that slip out of the public consciousness long before the residual effects of their actions have faded.

But Bush’s unwavering support of Gonzales, although not exactly shocking, just makes me wonder what an administration official would have to do to get fired. I think that someone should find out. I’m waiting for the Secretary of Energy to run across the White House lawn naked. But since he serves ‘at the pleasure of the president’, it’s all okay.

Jon Stewart’s take on the ‘pleasure of the president’ line. Awesome.

Yet, I think we’re in for a fun year and a half as the RP’s get pounded for only a fraction of their misdeeds during the past six years, but at least it’s something. It just saddens me that the media attention and “outrage” over the administration’s failings cover only the superficial events and gloss over the real issues affecting our basic human rights. It shocks me how cases of human rights and civil liberty abuses get glossed over in favor of smaller, less pervasive scandals.

How much do we hear about the Military Commissions Act, which revokes the constitutional right of due process to anyone, citizen or not, that the president declares to be an ‘enemy combatant’? Are we okay with a ‘redefinition’ of torture to however the administration sees fit without any consideration for the Geneva Convention or basic human rights? I’m not saying we should give anyone a pass on the lesser issues such as dismissed US attorneys. It’s a real problem that those responsible absolutely need to be held accountable for. If any administration can dismiss an appointed US attorney based on political preference, we have a major problem. But I wish that our Congress would stand up for the things that don’t fall into the category of scandal of the day or the most current national distraction. There are good people out there that are sponsoring legislation to fix many of the problems created since 9/11, but the fact that we have to fight for legislation to protect our basic human rights is a symbol of a greater issue that we can’t fix through votes.