Goodbye Gonzales
By PAM BERNS
When U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned today, President Bush expressed his displeasure in the resignation and said Gonzales’ name had been dragged through the mud. Gonzales was only one of many—Bush loaded his administration with unqualified friends and political cronies. Remember “Brownie?” Miers? Rove? Rumsfeld? This position is too important to be filled with a chum: the U.S. Attorney General is the most important Justice official in our country. The head of the FBI Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General James Comey contradicted Gonzales’ misleading attempts to gloss over the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping and the dissent of Justice Department lawyers within the department over this matter. Justice Department aides under Gonzales had forced the resignations of U.S. attorneys, which many in Congress—including Republicans—felt to be for political reasons, not performance. Many of us feel Gonzales has resigned in an attempt to avoid a probe into whether he perjured himself or mislead Congress. He’s still not off the hook: investigations should proceed. Bush could only see his side of this issue, which is exactly why Gonzales had to go. Published: August 27, 2007
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