Spiky:

“It’s going to be very tough,” said David Rivkin, a former White House lawyer under President George H.W. Bush, who is close to officials [Fred Fielding?] in the current White House. “What [Gonzales’s resignation] is going to do is frontload a lot of battles on a number of issues: the appointment of a special counsel, document production, FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)—that otherwise would have been spaced out over the next year.”

See you in Sep-tem-ber... Assuming the Dems don't capitulate again, of course:

Rivkin, who has publicly defended Gonzales, said that he believes that it would be “political blackmail” for the Democrats to hold up the appointment of a new attorney general...

Yeah. And?

... unless they get what they want on those issues. But the belief that they are likely to do so is sufficiently widespread that White House aides and GOP staffers were today floating the idea that Bush may seek a less divisive figure with greater stature on Capitol Hill to succeed Gonzales.

What in the name of sweet suffering Jeebus does a "less divisive" figure have to do with anything?

How about the Bush administration start treating Congress as a co-equal branch of government and cough up the information that's been subpoenaed?

How about the Bush administration STFU on FISA and giving the telcos immunity for their past "alleged" felonies under the Bush administration, and let us get back to the job of restoring Constitutional government?

Of course, given past history, there's no reason to think Harry and Nancy won't just roll over again--those nasty DFHs, they're never satisfied, so Fuck him--but we can always dream, right? That's what being a progressive is all about, I suppose....

UPDATE From the Department of You Knew This Was Coming: Times fluffer Sheryl Gay Stolberg explains why Gonzo's auto-defenestration is good for the Republicans:

Final Chance for Fresh Start
The back-to-back resignations of Karl Rove and Alberto R. Gonzales, two longtime aides to President Bush who have become lightning rods on Capitol Hill, amount to a political housecleaning for the White House, providing Mr. Bush a fresh chance to make what he can of his remaining months in office.

The announcement on Monday that Mr. Gonzales will step down as attorney general — coming on the heels of the resignation of Mr. Rove, the chief political strategist — effectively removes two of the biggest targets on Democrats’ hit list.

Well, except for Cheney and Bush himself, of course.

If the resignations remove some of the partisan tension between the White House and Capitol Hill, and get Mr. Rove and Mr. Gonzales off the front pages, they could help get Mr. Bush off the defensive as he struggles to salvage something of his second term.

This little crotte of conventional wisdom is wrong in so many ways. The end of "partisan tension" meme is so stupid it's not worth responding to. The really pernicious meme is the "legacy" ("salvage something") meme. Don't these people understand? The chaos and the looting is the Bush legacy! That was the plan, and it's still being executed--flawlessly!

The really good news, though, is that just like with the Iraq Studly Group, Bush isn't going to be able to change. He's simply not amenable to an intervention:

Calvin C. Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University who follows Texas politics, said advisers like Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Bolten could lead Mr. Bush to “more of a middle ground,” enabling him to work with Democrats — as he did in Texas — on issues like children’s health insurance [which He's already threatened to veto] and reauthorizing his signature education bill, No Child Left Behind [good luck with that] ....

“It does give him a chance,”

A fat chance!

... Professor Jillson said, “but whether he has the mental and ideological flexibility to take advantage of that chance, I’m quite skeptical of that.”

He added, “If you just listen to what he said today in defense of Gonzales, his back is so up and his heels are so dug in, I’m not sure he can do it.”

Yep.

And besides: Bush still has the LIHOP card.

UPDATE WaPo's Dan Balz:

The path of least resistance for Bush would be to find someone with dependable Republican credentials who can win confirmation with Democratic support. The confirmation process will demonstrate the extent to which both sides can move beyond the Gonzales controversy, but in the current environment, prospects for a compromise seem uncertain at best.

Well, that's encouraging. "The path of least resistance for Bush would be ponies."

I'd never put it past the Beltway Dems to triangulate themselves into a losing position, but surely Bush simply can't nominate anyone with an ounce of integrity to the job? Because what would come to light would be so noxious Bush wouldn't survive it?

Weak-chinned E.J. Dionne is playing the same tune:

But how Divisive the coming months will be depends hugely on whom President Bush names to succeed Gonzales and on whether Republicans in Congress are thinking more about Bush's legacy or their own.

And what in the name of sweet suffering Jeebus is wrong with being Divisive? So fucking what if the courtiers at Versailles on the Potomac have to get in separate lines at the cocktail wienie table for a while? If restoring Constitutional government makes for a little division, is there something wrong with that?

And here's another doozy from Dionne:

Democrats, publicly and privately, pledged not to back off investigating what went wrong on Gonzales's watch. But whether that journey toward the truth occurs in a deliberate or a partisan way depends, in part, on how leading Republican members of Congress judge their current obligations and their long-term interests.

So... "deliberate" is when the Republicans--who have been with Bush every step of the way--decide he's a liability and heave him over the side?