Ruben Navarrette Jr. takes those jumping on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to task:

The nation’s first Hispanic attorney general is being pressured to resign by — pick ‘em — Democrats trying to make hay, an elite media that long opposed him, civil libertarians who condemn administration policy on detainees and wiretaps, conservatives who think Gonzales is too liberal, and liberals who think he’s too conservative.

Now, some of Gonzales’ actions have been questionable, and I do think the civil libertarian criticisms have some validity. That said, I’m not sure that the current debacle is the big deal it has been made out to be.

It is true that the Bush Administration has made errors in dealing with it. The President failed to strongly defend Gonzales, and just failed to fight back in general. This is a frequent and accurate criticism of the Bush Administration. But it doesn’t mean Gonzales should be fired. He has committed no crime. Perhaps it was wrong to fire prosecutors, I don’t know. But it wasn’t illegal. Indeed, Bill Clinton fired 93 of them. But the Democrats (and some opportunistic Republicans) smell blood in the water.