I guess we saw it coming.

“WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 ‚Äî Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.

Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, the official said. His decision was not immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch near here.

Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the resignation had not yet been made public.”

If Gonzales was going to hand in his papers this is a good time. Congress is out, Labor Day is here. In other words no one outside gives a crap or is even paying attention.

As the left quickly reminds people ad nasuem, Gonzales is President Bush’s personal friend. Because the the left is for the most part so morally bankrupt they wouldn’t know that he resigned simply to allow his friend to continue his term without dragging it down just because Democrats are determined to continue their witchhunts.

Word is that DHS Chief Michael Chertoff is going to be his replacement. May be a good move, but Democrats are still going to drum up new “problems” in order to pester the President for the remainder of his term. Chucky Cheese Schumer is swearing, “Democrats will not obstruct or impede a nominee who we are confident will put the rule of law above political considerations.”

Yeah….coming from the Chief of Political Hacks.

UPDATE: Rich Lowry beat me to it, but the fact is that Gonzales chose to resign, he wasn’t forced.

“Just talked to a DOJ source who says this is how he understands it: Gonzales went to Texas last week to spend time with his family and reflect. He thought the Josh Bolten rule about if you’re going to stay on now, you should stay to the end of the administration applied to him too. He decided to leave based on the stress and impact on his family of staying on the job; on the distraction staying would have represented to the department; on the work he had done to get the department stabilized (put in place a new deputy AG, changed hiring practices, and referred entire mess to the IG); on the fact that, with a huge FISA fight coming, the department needed someone with 100% credibility leading it. He also has a kid in college and another coming up and wants to earn some money to pay college expenses. This source says of the resignation, “I have no reason to believe it wasn’t fully his decision.”

This confirms what I received from someone very close to Gonzales. Again, character and principle, something that your average democrat like William Jefferson, Chuck Schumer and Patrick Leahy couldn’t spell without being struck by lightening.

UPDATE II: Chertoff will NOT be getting the job, more to come.

In spite of this unbelievable coup by Senate Democrats conspiring with rogue DOJ officials to unseat AG Alberto Gonzales, the President will hold fast and is right to do so. Gonzales isn’t going anywhere.

In nearly six months of hearings based on nothing except the hate of Democrats for President Bush, they have uncovered nothing at all in the so-called US Attorney scandal. Not one shred of evidence showing anything other than politics as usual, political appointees work at the pleasure of the President - period.

After his testimony, Senator Leahy is now hinting perjury charges again AG Gonzales based on what he and his cronies see as conflicting testimony. Others, such as the legal eagles at Powerline are responding to this fallacious charge this morning so there is no need for me to respond, other to agree that there was no conflict in the testimony and Leahy and his gang know it.

Choosing to cite honorable public servants such as Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton with trumped up contemp charges shows just how corrupt and morally bankrupt the Senate Democrats have become. Whenever you have Patrick Leahy, who once lost his job becuase he couldn’t keep secret documents secret you have entered a bizzaro universal where good is evil and evil is good.

Which leads us to just how long the American people have to put up with this partisan witch hunt before they say “enough”.

Bluntly, Leahy is the McCarthy of his time. Outside of party affiliation (Democrat/Republican) there is no difference between the two. Senator Jospeh McCarthy ran rabid over people’s lives attempting to ruin not only reputations but the person themselves, he was only finally stopped after people said, “enough” and rightly censured him. Congressional members on both sides of the isle rose up to publicly challenge McCarthy and in the end condemn him.

I know that there isn’t a lot of conservative support for Gonzales, or even for Harriet Miers, but there should be support - no, there should be the courage for Republicans to stand up to this nonsense. There should be the guts to stand up and say, “enough” and begin to call into question the questionable motives of Leahy, Schumer, Conyers, and other Democrats - none of which can throw stones in the areas of impropriety or lack of credibility.

It’s time for Republicans to step up and defend what is right against what is clearly wrong and corrupt. That is to stop an out of control congress and put an end to their assault on the Constitution and the President of the United States.

Enough is enough.