Dead Man Walking

Remember John Ashcroft? Bush’s first attorney general resigned over two years ago leaving behind his legacy, The Patriot Act, which steamrolled over the Bill of Rights and gave the average citizen nervous twitters merely using a library card. Defiance against the Act included states and cities passing anti-Patriot Act resolutions and Republican conservative Rep. Don Young calling it the “worst act we have ever passed.” When then Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch proposed keeping the Act permanently, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Republican F. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin responded, “Over my dead body.”

Now we have the equally controversial Roberto Gonzales to scrutinize. From his days in Texas when he was legal counsel to then Gov. Bush, to his years as Bush White House Counsel, Gonzales has been a faithful Bush loyalist little known outside Washington, although he was mired in the decisions that led to the 2004 Abu Ghraib fiasco, including prisoner treatment, interrogation and torture, and rights. In a July 2004 Newsweek article Gonzales was described as “low-key” and “genteel”, someone who would not “contradict forceful officials like John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld.” When appointed to his post in February 2005, the new Attorney General Gonzales spoke to Department of Justice employees, stressing the his duty to be “consistent with our values and legal obligations. That will be the lodestar that guides us in our efforts at the Department.” Fast forward two years, and Gonzales’ lack of integrity and evasiveness, his rubber-stamping of forceful officials’ questionable policies and his unquestioning loyalty to the president is dragging the Bush administration to a new low in public trust and confidence.

Facing bipartisan censure for misleading Congress in their investigation into the firing of eight US attorneys, allegedly for not showing sufficient loyalty to the Bush administration and policies, Gonzales is dead man walking, with the count-down to his demise trumping the demise of Nicole Smith in the news. One website is even turning the Gonzales circus into a contest, with whomever guesses the exact timing of the resignation of Gonzales to walk away with a year’s supply of ice-cream.

But connecting the dots from Ashcroft and his divisive reign, to Abu Ghraib, to the appointment of a loyal push-over to the post of Attorney General, perhaps we should not be surprised that Gonzales has used his office not in the tradition of Burke, but in the tradition of Boss Tweed.

As Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said, “The rule of law, without fear or favor, is so important to this country.”


(find articles for WC library links:
over my dead body: Patriots vs. the Patriot Act.(Column). David Sarasohn. The Nation 277.8 (Sept 22, 2003): p23.
July 2004 Newsweek article: Homesick for Texas; Alberto Gonzales left a good life to become White House counsel. Amid a series of legal setbacks, he's wondering why. Daniel Klaidman and Tamara Lipper. Newsweek (July 12, 2004): p32. (670 words)