Now Serving Grilled Alberto

Abu Gonzales is having his day in, um--well, he's certainly having a much better time than the folks he and his boss Dubya sent to the death chamber in Texas, or the folks at Abu Ghraib--or Guantanamo. At the same time, it looks like C-Span will be interesting tonight, once Congress concludes its business.

Tom Tomorrow points to a live blog link for anyone interested, and Pandagon had a few musings earlier, the short version being that Alberto is teetering so badly you'd think that maybe he'd spent last night hooded, balanced on a box, with electrodes strapped to certain areas.

I'll also be watching for those of wingnut persuasion on the panel to come up with ever more preposterous justifications for torture--hell, I might even make a drinking game out of that. I've posted about this before--long ago, so I'm not going to scour through the archives--but it always amazes me to watch the, no-pun-intended, torturous rationalizations given for the necessity of inflicting pain and suffering. It's always "for the children" or "for the masses of civilians".

It's sort of like the justification for the death penalty, which always involves invoking the most horrific of crimes, e.g., the Manson murders, Son of Sam, etc. (funny though that neither Manson nor Berkowitz is on death row, although Charles was moved as a result of I believe Furman v. Georgia in 1972 or 73). Later, it seems that the death penalty becomes little more than an exercise in prosecutorial viciousness, aimed at those least able to mount an effective defense, with the side benefit of looking good come election time.

Torture, at least as practiced by Team Bush, seems to be in a similar vein. And, for that, we have many to thank, but Alberto Gonzales is high on the list. But now he promises to behave himself.

Actually, what's kind of sad is that while voting thumbs down on someone like Gonzales would certainly be humiliating for him (and about the worst "justice" he'll ever have to face), shunting him aside would do little to actually provide retribution for the shame he's brought upon the country. On the contrary, he'd simply make a mint in private practice, serving one or several corporate clients and enjoying high end, expense account meals.

But you also don't want to reward the guy. So, what to do?...

I say let him take the AG job--after spending a year or so at Camp X-Ray, under the same conditions as all the other residents of that facility. Don't tell him before the fact what the length of his stint will be--instead, handcuff him, tie him down in the cargo bay of a C-130, and fly him down. Let him see up-close what he's brought about.