Exit Gonzales: Loyalty, politics and the law

In my book, when embattled Alberto Gonzales, the nation’s first Latino attorney general, announced his resignation after a disastrous tenure, he actually managed to add insult to injury.

This son of a Mexican-American construction worker said, “Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father’s best days. I have lived the American dream.”

Indeed, he has. And what a disgrace to his office, if not also his family, he turned out to be, squandering his place in history.

State Sen. Juan Pichardo, a Providence Democrat who is Rhode Island’s leading Hispanic politician, says any dad would be proud to see his son get such a high post. But Pichardo also sees “terrible” decisions made by an attorney general loyal to a president who has been bad news for the country. Indeed, Pichardo wonders if Gonzales was “set up to be a failure,” pulled along by an administration off on its own agenda.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who long raged against Gonzales, says his quitting should mark the start of a ton of work needed to restore “the dedication, the tradition, the spirit, and the integrity of the Department of Justice.”
Calling for a “fire wall” between the department and the White House, the freshman Democrat wants an attorney general “loyal to the rule of law.”

In 2005, the Senate confirmed Gonzales, 60 to 36. Democrat Jack Reed voted no. He said Gonzales, who was White House counsel, failed to support the Constitution, federal laws and treaty obligations.

Reed’s colleague at the time, Republican Lincoln Chafee, voted yes. Why? The former senator, who had major differences with George W. Bush on the war and other issues, said this week that backing the president’s choices for non-lifetime appointments was a way to keep his GOP credentials in order as a 2006 primary loomed. He saidhe “had to have something” to point to in courting party town committees.

Hmm.

You might think Chafee would denounce Gonzales now, if not then, but he says, “Ultimately, they all answer to the top… He was just a loyal fall guy. He carried out what the president and vice president wanted.”
I see. But did Gonzales have to project such an air of incompetence and untruthfulness?

Mulling qualities a successor will need, I recalled something former Republican Gov. Lincoln Almond, long a U.S. Attorney, had told me: The best attorney general he served under was Edward Levi, named by President Gerald Ford after Watergate.

So I phoned Almond and asked what made Levi so special. He said of the man who had been president of the University of Chicago, “Integrity. Intellect. Attention to the job. Focused.”

Almond said the fact that the Department of Justice was wracked by crisis provided a showcase for Levi’s skills. “If you’re a good leader,” Almond said, “a crisis gives you the opportunity to lead.”

And Almond, who wondered about the quality of Gonzales’ staff, called Levi’s aides tops. He said, “If you don’t have strong people around you, you’re not going to be a strong leader.”

Whitehouse, a former U.S. Attorney and state attorney general, assumes Mr. Bush will name someone with a good GOP pedigree to replace Gonzales, but he wants the person to have “real stature” as well. Someone, he says, like former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor or former Sen. John Danforth.

And the chances that will happen? “I’m prepared to be disappointed,” Whitehouse said, “but I’d like to be optimistic.”

• Print
• Email
• Tweet