Alberto Gonzalez is either an idiot . . .

Posted by Raznor

Or he thinks we are. Take a look at his comments regarding Hamdan:

The Supreme Court decision that ruled against the Bush administration's plan to try suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay prison has "hampered our ability" to deal with terrorists, the U.S. attorney general said Saturday.

...."What this decision has done is, it's hampered our ability to move forward with a tool which we had hoped would be available to the president of the United States in dealing with terrorists," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told CNN.

Via Kevin Drum who adds:

Can somebody please explain to me why the Bush administration takes the consistent position that the involvement of the Congress of the United States is something that ipso facto "hampers" our ability to deal with terrorists? Do they think Congress is unpatriotic? Too weak minded? Untrustworthy? What's the deal?

I for one am sick of any time the Administration is made to be accountable for anything they always say "War on Terror".

Speaking of Hamdan, Glenn Greenwald has a great summary of the decision. Most significant is this (emphasis his):

Strictly speaking, the Supreme Court did not enforce the mandates of the Geneva Conventions against the administration, nor did it hold that the administration is required in the absence of Congressional mandate to comply with the Conventions. To the contrary, the Court here was enforcing Congress's "express condition," when authorizing the President as part of the UCMJ to create military commissions, "that the President and those under his command comply with the law of war." The Court was enforcing the statutory requirement against the administration that it comply with the law of war with regard to military commissions, not the Conventions themselves.

Keep that in mind as the right wing talking heads explain how this proves the Geneva Conventions are obsolete. Yeah, you knew they were bloviating out of their assholes already, but maybe you weren't aware how much.