Al Gore still has a staff of workers, a group of people who would be likely members of his campaign. Those people have been told in the past that Al Gore is not running for president. Now they are being told to "stand by" for a possible campaign.

By having a group of people ready for "deployment" in what would have to be a catch-up campaign, Al Gore is allowing himself to wait until the last possible moment to throw his hat in the race. Al Gore would probably poll well against most of the other Democrats in the race. He has more appeal than Hillary Clinton, and his name is more well-known than Barack Obama and John Edwards.

Obama has said that he is running for the top spot, not vice president, but I think that would be the perfect place for him on this ticket. Obama needs to realize that he is young, he has not earned the opportunity to run for president yet. In 8 years time, he would still be many years away from collecting social security, and by then he would be in line for the top spot on the Democratic ticket. For now, he should be considering making himself the #2 man in this campaign.

I think a Gore/Obama ticket would be a monster for Republicans to deal with for a number of reasons. First of all, Gore and Obama are relatively young. That puts them at a huge advantage over the likes of John McCain, the septuagenarian who, along with other GOP hopeful Rudy Giuliani, has fought a scare with cancer in the past 10 years.

Gore and Obama would be the ultimate "clean" ticket for the Democrats. Both have pasts that are relatively scandal free. Gore does have that Buddhist temple fundraising scandal, but that was a minor event that happened over a decade ago. It was an ethics violation, but minor compared to the scandals we see in the White House now. Obama is a man who has appeared out of nowhere. The only thing Republicans have thrown against him so far is that he may have prayed in a mosque when he was a child. That's hardly a crime, but the GOP knows that implying Obama has ties to Islam will rile the more bigoted parts of its base.

I know I've been neglecting Hillary Clinton in this writing. While I like her, I really don't want her on the the Democratic ticket. She is loved by about as many people as she is hated. That's not what I want in a president. We already have that type of situation with George W. Bush, and it has made our country a much worse place. I truly believe that Gore and Obama can unite a greater part of this country than any other candidates out there. So come on, Al. Time to step down from teaching and documentary-making. Throw your hat in this race.
kutv.com - Gore Team Told To 'Stand By' For Presidential Run

These are ugly times to be a member of the Grand Ol' Party. Things are going poorly, and people need to be blamed quickly in an attempt to save face. First up is Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He played ball with the Bush administration, even going so far as to making a list at the President's request, ranking federal attorneys by their allegiance to Bush. Those who ranked low were fired.

Although politically-motivated firings of federal attorneys is unethical, there are questions as to whether it is illegal. The fact that the Attorney General and Bush's staff worked so closely on the firings is very troubling. Alberto Gonzales is facing questions for more than just the firings. He lied during his last visit to Congress, saying that he did not help Bush in the firings. Although not under oath, lying to Congress is actually a crime just as serious as perjury.

The GOP needs to get rid of this mess, and in a hurry. Although the Bush White House does not seem to be in on the plan, the Republicans in Congress have almost unilaterally turned against Gonzales. They are attacking him in the latest round of questioning, being as bold and stern as possible, perhaps in an attempt to get noticed on C-SPAN and maybe replayed later on The Daily Show. Nothing could help a Republican running for office in the next two years more than showing that they are not with the Bush administration at this time.

All of this is terrible news for Gonzales. He knows he lied to Congress, and he has no support from his party to help him defend himself. In yesterday's testimony alone, Mr. Gonzales was forced to say "I do not recall" a total of 70 times. He has to pretend that he has the worst case of amnesia ever, because it's the only way to avoid possible criminal charges.

Before we heap all the blame on Gonzales, let's remember whose orders he was following, and who supported those actions.

Karl Rove made a claim this week that only his dumbest followers could possibly believe. He said that he did accidentally delete the White House internal emails that are required by law to be saved. Those emails were subpoenaed last week.

Deleting emails on accident is not a difficult task. The problem is, those deleted emails would then go to a deleted folder, where they could be recovered. Karl Rove somehow accidentally deleted the emails from the inbox, then accidentally deleted them from the deleted folder.

That's not the most damning evidence. The evidence that proves Karl Rove is lying is the fact that there are 5,000,000 missing emails, spread across multiple computers and servers. Either Karl Rove has spent the past 3 years wiping computer hard drives accidentally (perhaps while sleeping), or his is a fat, bald LIAR.

Karl Rove should be in prison right now, end of story. The proper punishment for this threat to American democracy involves a broomstick wrapped in barbed-wire and his nether regions.
blogtopicz » Rove: Oops, I hit the delete key 5,000,000 times!

Richard Nixon had those infamous tapes with the 18 minute gap. George W. Bush has internal emails that somehow disappeared and deleted from archives. The Bush administration is facing yet another scandal, this time for violating a law that requires them to save all emails relating to official White House business.

The Bush administration rarely used the White House email accounts they were assigned. Those emails are sent over servers they do not control and save automatically. Instead, they used emails provided by the Republican National Committee. There is nothing wrong with that; it is perfectly legal. That said, the Bush administration is still required to save all work-related emails.

Subpoenas were sent out last week requesting emails that could relate to the attorney general scandal. It was already clear from evidence gathered last month that there were emails between the Attorney General and Bush's staff that contradict statements made before Congress. It seems that those emails were "cherry-picked" from the RNC email accounts, and the archives were deleted without reason.

The string of crimes that are involved here are too long to captivate the interest of the general American public. These are the same people that made "Wild Hogs" a #1 movie. There is no sordid tale of lust here, so there's no reason to expect this scandal to go any further than the others of this administration. Ugh.
Bush aides' use of GOP e-mail probed - USATODAY.com

The White House has been using "back-channel" emails for its communications for about as long as George W. Bush has been in power. This was done to keep these communications secret, as White House emails from White House email accounts become part of the public record. The problem with this is the White House is required by law to use White House email accounts for official business. That would include almost all communications other than those with Republican strategists.

Those back-channel emails could by law become part of the public record. That means all those things that George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and many others thought they were saying in private could be made public. We all remember how embarrassing those tapes were to Richard Nixon, especially with the things he said about minorities. It could actually be much worse for the Bush administration.
The Raw Story | GOP activist: There is concern about what may be in these e-mails

President Bush nearly immolated himself, Dick Cheney, and the CEO of Ford yesterday, and it's rumored that the First Lady is already considering using a human cage to keep the president from endangering himself in the future.

Ford President Alan Mulally was attempting to demonstrate a plug-in hydrogen vehicle when President Bush took the power cord and tried to plug it into the hydrogen tank. Mulally quickly pulled the president away. The hydrogen tank is clearly marked and does not have a plug-in socket that would match anything like the end of a power cord. Had the president managed to stick the cord into the tank, there likely would have been a fiery explosion.

The deterioration of the president's brain has increased in recent months. He entered the White House in 2001 with a measured IQ of 94. It had dropped to 78 by mid-2006, and has since sunk all the way down to 61. The time has nearly come to put the president in a nursing home, where he can get the special care he needs.
Plug it in, fire it up, Mr. President

President Bush thought he was a pretty sly guy. He wanted to appoint his buddy Sam Fox, who helped his 2004 re-election campaign by smearing John Kerry with those Swift Boat lies, to the position of Ambassador to Belgium. Usually this appointment would have required approval from Congress. It was almost certain that John Kerry would have made a public spectacle of the process, making Fox answer for what he did.

George W. Bush found a solution: a recess appointment. He would fill the empty position with Fox, and it would be legal because Fox had volunteered to take the position without pay. It all seemed to be going well for the president, but there was one problem: the position of ambassador has a fixed pay rate. Volunteering to take the position without pay is not allowed. Either Fox had to agree to take the fixed pay, which would null the recess appointment and force an approval process, or he must step down.

Of course, this is only the law of the land. This administration has believed it is above the law for many years, so they will likely ignore this technicality as long as possible.
Think Progress » Swift Boat funder’s appointment may be illegal.