Alberto Gonzoles is not Fredo (and this isn't just about The Godfather

So, we know from the WashPost expose on Darth Cheney that George Bush's nickname for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is "Fredo".

Anyone who's ever seen the movie will realize that Bush is as illiterate about The Godfather as he is about . . . just about everything else.

Of course, Fredo was the hapless, hopeless, black sheep of the Corleone family, whom the family basically just tried to keep from screwing up, until his naivete and stupidity became an actual threat to the family.

Gonzales is nothing like Fredo, not least because Bush will never send Gonzo "fishing with Al Neri". (which I learned from "the Google" is what a number of knuckle-draggers are now suggesting; here, and here and here).

As Pappy Bush would say, "naaagaaanahapen".

Alberto Gonzales is not Fredo, he's Tattaglia.

Philip Tattaglia was head of one of the five crime families, but more importantly was initially suspected by the Corleones of being responsible for Sonny Corleone's murder ("they shot Sonny on the causeway").

But after a sitdown amongst the heads of all the families that results in Don Vito Corleone and Tattaglia making the peace, Don Vito tells it like it is:

Tattaglia's a pimp. He never could've out-fought Santino. But I didn't know until this day that it was Barzini all along.

And that's where we get back to the Gonzales fiasco, and why calls for impeachment are well-intentioned, certainly deserved, perhaps Constitutionally necessary, but potentially a huge red herring.

Just replace a few words in that Godfather quote:

"[Gonzales is] a pimp. He never could've [cooked up the legal argument to sanction torture, secret prisons and extraordinary renditions]. But I didn't know until this day that it was [Cheney] all along."

"[Gonzales is] a pimp. He never could've [thought to fire any U.S. Attorney who refused to prosecute bogus voter fraud cases to suppress Democratic voter turnout]. But I didn't know until this day that it was [Cheney] all along."

"[Gonzales is] a pimp. He never could've [dreamt up a scheme to get a sedated Attorney General Ashcroft to sign off on an illegal domestic spying program that he opposed when conscious by visiting his hospital bedside]. {{which has it's own Godfather analogy}} But I didn't know until this day that it was [Cheney] all along."

And on and on.

This is why the wingnuts would love to have Gonzo "sleep with the fishes". It's why the Administration can't even bring itself to make a defense of Gonzo on their house organ, Faux News.

They'd love for this to be all about Gonzales and his serial lying and perjury, and have it end there.

But it's not, and it never was. Gonzales is a pimp. Like Tattaglia, he's just the frontman taking the fall for Cheney's, Rove's and Bush's illegal and unconstitutional machinations.

It's not just that he's lying and perjuring himself. It's that he's lying and perjuring himself about the President's, Vice President's and Karl Rove's crimes, specifically to cover up those crimes.

Don't ever forget, when Micheal finally "settled all family business", he didn't stop with offing Tattaglia in bed with his hooker, he took care of Barzini on the courthouse steps.