The CNN Political Ticker Reports:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation Monday, telling reporters he informed President Bush on Sunday that he will leave his post “effective as of” Sept. 17. In a very brief statement before reporters, Gonzales offered no explanation for his decision and did not take questions. ”I am profoundly grateful to President Bush for his friendship and for the many opportunities he has given me to serve the American people,” Gonzales said. As the grandson of Mexican immigrants, Gonzales also said he has “lived the American dream.” ”Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father’s best days,” he said.

What does this mean for the Bush administration? I don’t think it will change much, the American public at this point in time, has their minds made. The only thing that President Bush can do now is just ride out the rest of his term, and serve the American people as best he can. What do you think?  

• On Saddam Hussein: This world would not have been a better place with Saddam Hussein in power. Surprise to me that he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. The competition between him and Iran for a nuclear weapon would have been huge.
• QUOTE OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE: “Give me a second, let me finish, I’m on a role here”

• On Alberto Gonzales and the Justice Department: Their is an internal investigation taking place at the Justice Department. “If there has been wrong doing it will be addressed.” President Bush suspects this is another example of “political theater.” “I got confidence in Al Gonzales to do the job.”
• On Withdrawl: If the Iraqi government fell, the country would split more so then today. Outside forces such as Iran would have great influence on the government. Failure in Iraq would be a threat to the Untied States. “Victory will come when that country is stable.”
• On Osama BinLaden, why is he so hard to catch?: He is hiding, in a remote location. If I knew where he was we would catch him and we continue to search for him. As well as his operatives and we continue to work to stop their growth in Iraq.

• President Bush: Inteligence “warned of a lot of thing” before the Iraq war, some came true and some did not.

•  On staying to achieve victory: We are there on the invitation of the Iraqi government, if the Iraqi government told us to leave we would leave. “This is a sovereign country, we are there upon their request”

• On Al-Qaeda:“Al Qaeda have got plenty of patience and persistence” so should the American people. We will stay on the offense, and fight them over there. “They are a threat to your children, and who ever is in that oval office should recognize that threat.”

Iraq War Funding Bill

• We got rid of “arbitrary timetables” removed millions of unnecessary spending

• The bill provides vital funds for our troops, and shows a consensus that the Iraqi government needs to be held to a series of benchmarks.

• Their democratic government is just over a year old and needs our help

• The Iraqi people continue to be under relentless attack from extremist, our new plan is to help the Iraqi government gain security in their capital

• This summer is a critical time for the new strategy, the last of the reinforcements will be in Iraq by mid-June.

• Expect more fighting, and more American and Iraqi Causualties

Immigration

• What the administration has done this far is not enough, the senate bipartisan bill fixes these problems.

• “The bill does not grant amnesty”, it forces illegal imigrants to pay a fine and pass background checks.

• The temporary worker program only begins once the security measures are in place.

• “If you are serious about securing our borders…this bipartisan bill is the best option”

Questions

• On the Iranian nuclear issue–Iran is constantly on the agenda, they continue to be defiant. “The world has spoken and said no nuclear weapons program.” We need to strengthen our sanctions, with our European partners.

• How much longer can we continue to be in Iraq, in the current state?–The loss of life is devastating to families and I recognize that. I sent more troops to help the Iraqi government secure their capital. Our troops along with the Iraqis are going into new areas. In September we will see progress from Gen. Petreaus.

President Bush is holding a Press Conference on the Iraq war funding bill at 11:01, I will be blogging about it as it happens.

House Republican moderates, in a remarkably blunt White House meeting, warned President Bush this week that his pursuit of the war in is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he cannot count on GOP support for many more months. Read the whole article here.

President Bush has been steadfast in his position on Iraq, we have seen some straying off course over the past 2 days as the President has agreed to establish benchmarks. “One message I have heard from people of both parties is that benchmarks make sense and I agree,” Bush said. The administatrion plans to set up meeting with the Presidents Chief of Staff and members of congress, in order to agree upon a series of benchmarks.

House Republicans are doing the right thing by telling the President their position, like most Americans they are equally tired of the war. As well GOP needs to consider what their actions today will do to impact their 2008 election prospects.

The Politico Reports:

On a largely party-line vote, 221 to 205, the House narrowly approved another $42.8 billion in defense spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – the first stage in a two-step, phased-in emergency spending package.

The vote followed President Bush’s earlier public concession that he would accept selective “benchmarks” in compromise legislation that would be linked to the performance of the Iraqi government in curtailing violence and stabilizing the war-torn country.

The President has also threatened to veto this bill, which I highly disagree with. I believe that the idea of benchmarks that Congress is requesting is something that in this scenario is warranted, however this could set a precedent for future wars, which could hurt our countries cause.

I commend the Democrats for being steadfast in their position to perform there oversight duties, however I think that this maybe going to far. The framers of the constitution worked hard to ensure that no one person has to much power, they did name the President, the Commander in Chief of the armed forces and therefore it is ultimately his decision.

What do you think?

President Bush said Thursday he will “miss” outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and called him “a man who’s kept his word.”

The departure of Tony Blair will hurt President Bush more on this side of the Atlantic, because Blair has been the Bush administration chief ally in the war on terror. It will be interesting to see what happens when a new mabor of the labour party or the rival conservative party.

House Democrats were unable to garner enough votes to override the Presidents veto, of Iraq Supplemental Bill. Hopefully we will see a cleaner bill the Congressmen Boehner has spoken about today.