The new AG

Robert Novak reports that the list of possibles is short and filled with conservatives--suggesting gladly that all calls for an Edward Levi-esque Attorney General are going to be ignored:

Bush is not taking the very bad advice that he choose a nonpolitical academic along the lines of Edward Levi, the University of Chicago president named attorney general by Gerald Ford. Levi turned out to be Ford's enemy within. Not every president need select his own brother, as John F. Kennedy did, but a friendly face at Justice is needed.

Sure. After all, it's common knowledge on the right that Bush and the country badly need more dedicated Bushies lying to the public on his behalf of the president.

At the beginning of the piece, Novak dances somewhat inconclusively around the issue of Bush's will in all of this. He writes, "one day after Alberto Gonzales submitted his resignation as attorney general and two days before it was made public, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten was on the phone feeling out who might be available as a replacement. That Bolten had a short list in hand indicates that even if George W. Bush was ready to ride out his presidency with his dear friend at the Justice Department, senior aides were eager to stanch the political bleeding."

If what he's saying is that Bush probably wasn't planning on pushing Gonzales out, then I think he's right. I realize that coddling Gonzales sounds like a completely deranged idea. But what that actually means is that keeping Gonzales aboard has been a deranged idea for some time. The right time to fire him would have been right after his first embarrassing round of testimony before the Congress. But that sort of sensibility requires a president who's somewhat on the level. What Bush did instead was defend Gonzales for months while his friend dragged the entire administration into heretofore unexplored levels distrust.

The narrative that's been gaining purchase--that Bush dumped Gonzales at the nadir of both men's popularity--sounds completely backwards to me. After all, it's much too late for Bush to win any points back from the public or the Congress for letting Gonzales go now. And, if anything, Gonzales is a greater danger to the president out of the office after a good firing than he would have been falling at the president's side deeper and deeper into the pits of disgrace.