The news filtering out from the US of yet another school/university massacre will yet again place pressure upon US lawmakers to tighten gun control — a seemingly never-ending debate. However, the nation’s top lawmaker, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, currently has other problems on his hands.

According to Henry’s Lexington, Gonzales’ role in, and response to, the controversy surrounding the dismissal of eight US attorneys has been entirely incompetent and there are predictions of fireworks to come:

In a Sunday op-ed article in the Washington Post, and in the release of his opening statement testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Gonzales’ ploy to pre-empt his Senate interrogators and position his defense in the media only infuriated his principle Senate nemeses.

The Chairman, Ranking Republican and Senator Schumer (D-NY), the lead Democratic pit bull, have all intensely criticized Gonzales’ statements as “inadequate and unresponsive”. Fireworks on display start tomorrow…

Indeed, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 67% of Americans think the prosecutors were fired mainly for political reasons, rather than on the basis of their performance.

And a significant 58% disapprove of how Gonzales has dealt with the issue, including nearly half of Republican supporters. Stay tuned for more of Lexington’s coverage on the issue.

In other news from the US, another ABC News/Washington Post Poll released today found that for the first time a majority of Americans believe the United States will lose the war in Iraq and a massive two-thirds say that the war was not worth fighting.

These points have pushed George W Bush’s popularity through the floor – Just 35% approve of his job performance overall, while just 29% like how he’s dealing with the situation in Iraq.

Henry notes that the latest Newspoll result once again followed the latest Morgan Poll (for the third time straight), showing the ALP maintaining their strong lead over the Government.

Also, Wayne Swan yesterday condemned Peter Costello’s attack on Labor’s “inflationary” rollback of WorkChoices, saying that Costello was employing “voodoo economics”. A sure sign of growing confidence on the part of the Opposition.

Such confidence is well grounded, according to our resident bruvver-in-arms, Sir Wellington Boot:

There must be something upsetting the IR situation because I read on page 31 of the Good Weekend a comment (in an article on Karratha WA) that thousands of workers attended a rally in opposition to WorkChoices. I thought that these WA workers in the resources industry were delirious with joy on their AWAs. That is what the government has been telling us. All very confusing … but I don’t think the election result will be.

Read more at Henry Thornton.