Monday Roundup: Attorney General Gonzales Resigns

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tendered his resignation on Friday. The New York Times has it that he will discuss his decision to resign at a press conference later today.

This news is enormous. A replacement will have to be named, and the possibilities as to who that could be are endless. There's even a Kos thread that mentions Michael Chertoff as a possibility. My question is more political than procedural: why have this come out on a Monday morning, when it will dominate the news for a week and possibly two? It is also worth noting that everyone on the ship kept quiet until this morning, with White House aides and Justice spokespeople all more or less having no idea it was about to happen.

It isn't quite news that happened over the weekend, but it is some reporting I would like to point you to: the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal makes the observation that Texas hasn't had a gubernatorial race without an incumbent since 1990, when Ann Richards upset the presumptive candidacy of Clayton Williams. The article outlines the possibility of another open race in 2010.

This is all presuming, of course, that Rick Perry doesn't run for re-election. Which he might. I guess since the presidentials are so very prominent these days it still feels a little early to be talking about 2010, but I know that this is the time when the top races start to shape up. Politically, it is probably in Perry's best interest to wait as long as he can to announce his decision. Until then, you can expect comments that encourage speculation and fundraising blitzes to continue.

Speaking of presidential candidates and encouraging statements, John Edwards took some time recently to encourage Congress to use the filibuster on Iraq withdrawal. On Face The Nation, Edwards said that "Congress has a responsibility" to strongly pursue a course of action that ends in withdrawal in light of the results of the 2006 elections.

Washington Post's Paul Kane has the happy news that when it comes to Congressional fundraising, Democrats are "crushing" the Republicans. He says that Republicans in the House are running freakishly low on cash. This paragraph introduces you to their problems in a succinct way:

Less than 15 months from Election Day, the House Republican campaign arm -- the National Republican Congressional Committee -- continues to effectively run a negative balance. The committee has just $1.97 million in its accounts, as of July 31, according to FEC reports it filed this week. But the NRCC is also sitting on a debt of $4.1 million.

Kane puts the ratio of money, Dems to GOP, at 10 to 1.

In military news, the $20,000 signing bonus the Army is offering to new recruits who agree to enter basic by October 1 has been popular with those signing up. Some 3,800 recruits have accepted it and the Army's plan for aggressively attempting to meet recruiting goals has had some success. However, the article points out that as new recruits are a finite resource, the influx of people joining now rather than next year may depress recruitment in the long term.

Newsweek has a lengthy retrospective on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and where it stands today. I read about this kind of stuff all the time and the logistics of a worldwide manhunt that has thus far failed are both interesting and troubling.

Lastly today, the New York Times has an editorial on SCHIP and the Bush administration's recent destructive new regulations on the program. The title of it is "Stiff-Arming Children's Health." That was enough to get my attention, and you should trust me that the editorial is as good as the title.