We fire him. Actually, we refuse to fund his salary:
There's a reason that Democratic voters aren't happy with Democrats in Congress. We feel as if Democrats in Congress are missing opportunities. Gonzales' crimes are one such opportunity. Rather than have another hearing, or issue another statement calling on him to resign, why not do something about it? Appropriations season is coming up. Cut off all funds to Gonzales' office, or at least his salary. The GOP may filibuster the bill, let them. If it's filibustered, it dies, and so does Gonzales' salary. If the bill passes the Congress, Bush will threaten a veto. Let him. You control the appropriations, not Bush. If he vetoes the bill, we win, Gonzales still gets nothing.Now, Bush will claim that we're hurting the war on terror by stopping the DOJ from getting its funding. Let him. You will give DOJ all the funding it needs, you simply won't give it Gonzales' salary, because he's a criminal. If Bush wants a massive showdown over the fact that he is insisting in keeping a criminal as the head of the Justice Department, we as Democrats should welcome that battle.
The reason Democratic voters are upset with Democrats in Congress is because we sometimes fear that you don't have backbone.
Sadly, they won't do this. They can't even tax hedge fund managers' incomes at the same rate as the rest of us:
...I watch Senate Democrats waffle over what should be a clear issue of justice and sound tax policy -- namely, whether managers of private equity funds and hedge funds should be subject to the same taxes as ordinary working Americans -- I'm starting to feel that Mr. Nader wasn't all wrong.
What's at stake here is a proposal by House Democrats to tax "carried interest" as regular income. This would close a tax loophole that is complicated in detail, but basically lets fund managers take a large part of the fees they earn for handling other peoples' money and redefine those fees, for tax purposes, as capital gains.
The effect of this redefinition is that income that should be considered by normal standards to be ordinary income taxed at a 35 percent rate is treated as capital gains, taxed at only 15 percent instead. So fund managers get to pay a low tax rate that is supposed to provide incentives to risk-taking investors, even though they aren't investors and they aren't taking risks.
Will the Democrats ever stand for anything?
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I sympathize with you. The Bush administration is all about cronyism. Witness Julie Myers' appointment to ICE, Brown's to FEMA, Gonzalez' to the Justice Department, and Bush's attempt at putting Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court.
We fire him. Actually, we refuse to fund his salary
I just don't like the precedent this tactic will set. This sort of thing will get out of hand quickly in years to come. I can foresee future situations where, say, a Republican majority in Congress might retaliate by refusing to fund a Democratic president's people if they are alleged (but not proven) to have done something improper. If Congress thinks Gonzalez has done something illegal then they should go after him directly. If not, they are free to hound the Bush administration bad behavior but they shouldn't meddle in the president's prerogative.
Will the Democrats ever stand for anything?
No.