Truculent Bush tries to hang on to Gonzales.

Alberto Gonzales looks to all the world like a dead man walking, like a man who simply has to be fired. However, it is at moments like this that Bush always displays his truculence, his almost adolescent belief that the world is picking on him and - like any immature adolescent - he digs his heels in and refuses to budge, seeing himself as the victim of some injustice.

It is the exact same quality that made him double down his bet in Iraq and implement "surge and accelerate" rather than take the advice of the Baker report. Where he imagines he's displaying leadership, the rest of the planet sees only adolescent stubbornness. A refusal to admit to any reality that doesn't conform to his preconceived notions of what should be.

And so it is with Gonzales:

In a statement from the White House last night, Mr Bush said of the attorney general: "He's got support with me." The president threatened confrontation with the Democrats when he refused to allow White House officials including Karl Rove to testify in public before a congressional committee looking into the sackings.

Mr Bush said he would only allow private testimony to be given and would fight any attempt at subpoenas. "We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honourable public servants."

This is typical Bush-speak. Any evidence against him or his administration is labelled "partisan". This is because Bush prides himself as being someone who is above "politics", despite the fact that he runs the most partisan administration since Nixon. This is a man who, when he calls for non-partisan politics, actually means he'd like Democrats to do what he wants them to do. Non-partisan means giving him what he wants in his adolescent fantasy world.

You see also how, like any truculent teenager, Bush has managed to turn his refusal to co-operate into an act of nobility, as if his honour itself is at stake. Anyone familiar with teenage temper tantrums recognises the pattern.

However, Bush is pulling this hissy fit at the very moment that Republican support is draining away from Gonzales.

In a sign of Mr Gonzales's loss of support among Republicans as well as Democrats, the senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday to end the Bush administration's power to appoint prosecutors on its own. The senate passed a bill by 94 to two that overturned a provision in the Patriot Act that gave Mr Bush the power.

Surely even Bush can read the writing on the wall when it is written that largely? But no, he is ploughing on, no doubt seeing his stupidity as the noblest form of loyalty.

The White House deputy press secretary, Dana Perino, denied press reports that the administration was already looking at potential successors to Mr Gonzales. She said: "The president reaffirmed his strong backing of the attorney general and his support for him. The president called him to reaffirm his support."

This ploy would have some chance of succeeding if it were merely Democrats who were calling for Gonzales to go, however, even Republicans are now openly calling for his head.

But Bush has made his way to his bedroom, slammed the door, and is refusing to come out because it's all, "not fair!"

And now the entire American system of government stands outside the door listening as George destroys his bedroom.

He'll come out eventually. And, when he does, Gonzales will be gone.

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Tags: Bush, Gonzales, fired Attorneys