So who threw Gonzo under the bus? Obviously it wasn't Bush, who was clearly furious when he delivered his extremely brief remarks - in strong contrast to his public display of affection for Karl Rove.

Rather, it looks like the dirty deed was done by White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and White House Counsel Fred Fielding, according to the NY Times.

The officials said he offered his resignation on Friday in a brief telephone conversation with Mr. Bush, who was at his ranch in Crawford, and that the president immediately accepted the resignation. On Sunday, Mr. Gonzales and his wife flew to the ranch for a consoling lunch where the resignation was confirmed.

NY Times has the scoop:

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 announced immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch near here.

Congressional representatives from Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have sponsored H. Res. 589, a bill to impeach Alberto Gonzales. Will they also sign on to H. Res. 333, to sponsor Dick Cheney's impeachment? Why not thank them for sponsoring H. Res. 589, and ask them to sponsor H. Res. 333? Is YOUR rep listed? See the list here!

We know that activism works. In just the last 24 hours Debra Bowen decertified every DRE (hackable electronic voting machine) in CA, and she did this courageous thing at least in part because of the tens of thousands of messages she was getting from her constituents in the state. We know. We were involved in helping to mobilize those voices.

So too with impeachment. The only hurdle between the consensus of the people and restoring Constitutional integrity is our own dedication in speaking out and encouraging everyone else we can to do the same. And as we look for opportunities to reach out to our fellow citizens with calls to action, we cannot help but notice that the fastest growing networked community on the internet is the Facebook® web site. In large part this is because they have opened up their platform to member created applications, which in practical use makes their entire base of about 30 million participants accessible to the activism of each other.

IMPEACHMENT ACTION PAGE: http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/

Satyam has the news, courtesy of MSNBC:

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) is introducing legislation that would require the House Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives to begin an impeachment investigation into Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in the wake of his damaging testimony last week. The legislation reads:

Resolved: That the Committee on the Judiciary shall investigate fully whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to impeach Alberto Gonzales for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Tell your Representatives to Impeach Alberto Gonzales!

Another top Justice official quits

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Another top Justice Department official involved in the controversial firing of several U.S. Attorneys has announced he’s resigning.

Mike Elston, chief of staff to departing Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty is stepping down next week, Justice Department officials said Friday.

Elston’s departure had been anticipated after McNulty announced in May that he will leave the Justice Department this summer to pursue a career in the private sector.

Documents released by the Justice Department to Congressional investigators have shown Elston was involved in discussions with other high level Justice officials about plans to remove eight U.S. attorneys last year.

TELL CONGRESS TO REMOVE GONZALES BY CONSTITUTIONAL FORCE IF NECESSARY

ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com/impeach_gonzales.php

You can call toll free at 800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803 and ask for your own House member and Senators.

For an administration in which utter smirking defiance of law and the will of the American people is the only operational mode, IMPEACHMENT is the only remedy.

How bad can it possibly get before Congress will act? In explosive testimony this week before the Senate, the former number two official in the Justice apartment, James B. Comey, testified that Alberto Gonzales tried to bully a deathly sick John D. Ashcroft into signing off on a secret and massive domestic wiretap scheme which had already been determined to be profoundly illegal. Even the Washington Post was compelled to editorialize on Wednesday as follows:

As always, Digby is right on target. When Gonzales testified in 2006 about the illegal NSA wiretapping program, he cryptically hinted there was more than one program (video).

The exchange seemed so odd that I wondered if the Democrats didn't have some information that there was another domestic surveillance program that they couldn't discuss publicly.

We learned more about that program from James Comey's testimony on Tuesday, as a TPMMuckraker noted:

Leftblogs are boiling mad at James Comey's dramatic testimony about the 2004 trip by Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card to then-AG John Ashcroft's hospital bed to pressure Ashcroft to approve the illegal NSA wiretapping program.

("Loyal Bushie" David Johnston of the NY Times featured Bush's role in ending the conflict by siding with Comey, but failed to report that Bush started the conflict by approving the blatantly illegal program and then personally calling Mrs. Ashcroft to arrange the shocking visit.)

Bush, Gonzales, and Card would have gotten their way if Comey hadn't raced over to the hospital and arrived before Gonzales and Card. Even more shockingly, Comey had to persuade FBI director Mueller to order the FBI agents outside the hospital room to ignore any order from Gonzales and Card to eject Comey. Ultimately, Comey and Ashcroft had to threaten to quit in order to get Bush to reluctantly agree to something resembling the rule of law - although the "legality" of the final action remains a deep dark secret.