Gonzales is just a symptom

"You did a heckuva job at that Senate hearing, Gonzo!"
Image from The Conservative Fighter, who opines that since Bush has expressed "unwavering support" for Gonzales, it will be about a week before Bush fires him.

Greenwald takes up a theme on which I've been harping a bit here at Internal Monologue: As pleasant as it was to see that torture-endorsing mendacious flunky of an Attorney General raked over the coals and made a fool of, Gonzales isn't really the problem. Bush is. Gonzales is just one of many loyal hacks who've made a career of doing whatever Bush needs them to do, legality and morality be damned. If he resigns, there will be some other person like him taking his place. What other kind of person would agree to take the position? (Of course, one can argue that Cheney is the real problem, but if Bush were decent and connected to reality, Cheney would not be able to exercise the power he does.) Here's a brief snippet of what Greenwald has to say:

So it was gratifying, I suppose, to watch Alberto Gonzales finally be held accountable (at least rhetorically) and aggressively cornered due to his transparent evasions and untruths. But it is also difficult to avoid lamenting how many other times over the last several years he has done all of that with complete impunity. And it is far from clear whether there will be real accountablity even now.

Gonzales is a mere symbol -- really just an instrument -- of an entire Presidency guided for years by exactly these behaviors. And, at least thus far, they have engaged in that conduct with very, very few consequences.