August 27, 2007
Alberto Gonzales Resigns; Chertoff Floated As Replacement
UPDATED.
Describing his career trajectory as "a remarkable journey," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced he was finally stepping down after months of bipartisan calls for his resignation.
"Yesterday, I met with President Bush and informed him of my decision to conclude my government services as attorney general of the United States effective September 17," Gonzales said at a 10:30 a.m. EDT press conference. "It has been one of my greatest privileges to lead the Department of Justice."
The timing of Gonzales' announcement, late in the summer while Congress and the president are away, succeeded in taking the Beltway by surprise. Together, Gonzales and Bush had formed a two-man chorus of defiance, insisting the AG would not resign in the face of what they termed a political witch hunt. Neither Gonzales nor Bush publicly wavered on the matter, despite a mountain of damning testimony -- much of it the AG's own -- portraying him as an out-of-touch, ineffectual leader of the nation's criminal justice system.
According to CNN, Bush did not initially accept Gonzales' resignation when it was tendered on Friday. On Sunday, after the president and first lady hosted Gonzales and his wife in Crawford, Texas, Bush finally accepted the resignation.
Speaking to reporters later in the morning, Bush once again defended his old friend. "Al Gonzales is a man of integrity, decency and principle, and I have reluctantly accepted his resignation with great appreciation for the service that he has provided our country," Bush said in Waco prior to boarding Air Force One. Describing the events leading up to today as "months of unfair treatment that... created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department," Bush continued, "It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons."
Solicitor General Paul Clement will assume acting attorney general duties when Gonzales steps down next month, Bush said. Clement, a highly respected advocate before the U.S. Supreme Court, is being floated as a possible permanent replacement for Gonzales, as is Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, another respected legal mind who sat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Gonzales was first put on the hot seat in January, when Senate Democrats inquired about a mysterious sweep of firings of U.S. attorneys in 2006. Initially, their concern had to do with the DOJ's power to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation -- a provision that had been tucked into the PATRIOT Act in 2005. The department's insistence that the eight U.S. attorneys were fired because of "performance-related" issues spurred a few of the prosecutors to go public and accuse the DOJ of firing them for not towing the Bush administration's political line.
That, in turn, sparked a cascade of congressional hearings and DOJ and White House resignations. Testimony and documents indicate the prosecutors were fired for resisting administration pressure to focus efforts on voter fraud. Balkinization, a legal blog, was among the first to spotlight the RNC's voter-caging plan, a thinly veiled effort to keep black (and reliably Democratic) voters off the rolls. Fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias has accused former White House counsel Harriet Miers and top political strategist Karl Rove of hatching the plan to fire him and his colleagues; Monica Goodling, a DOJ liaison to the White House who resigned on April 7, told lawmakers she "crossed the line" by using political considerations in hiring and firing DOJ employees.
While unseemly, there was probably nothing criminal at the heart of the attorney firings probe. Indeed, it increasingly came to resemble a proxy indictment of the Bush administration by lawmakers frustrated over their impotent attempts to shape White House policy on the war and other matters. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was no fan of Gonzales, but expressed equal contempt for the politicization of the investigation by Democrats. Specter has accused panel colleague Charles Schumer, who's in charge of Senate Democrats' election efforts, of using the scandal for party advantage.
But the U.S. attorney scandal gave rise to another, more serious scandal, involving a secret NSA program that permitted warrantless surveillance of Americans. (See Gate coverage here, here , here and here.) The footprints on both the firings and NSA matters led back to the White House, furthering the impression of Gonzales as a lightweight lackey who barely had control over his own department.
Bush's allegiance to Gonzales in the face of political adversity dates back to the two friends' days in Texas. Conservative allies of the president have long been uncomfortable with Gonzales, suspecting him of off-message positions on abortion and affirmative action. Yet, Bush continued to elevate his friend over the decades, from the then-Texas governor's general counsel, to Texas secretary of state, to Texas Supreme Court judge, to White House counsel, and finally, to nation's top cop.
Critics have forced Bush to pull back at least once. In 2005, following the double-whammy of Chief Justice William Rehnquist's death and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement announcement, Bush debated promoting his friend to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Conservative allies made clear that they would oppose Gonzales' nomination because of his muddled history on abortion law. Bush relented, and opted instead to nominate White House counsel Harriet Miers, to howling disapproval.
Today's announcement of Gonzales' resignation brings his impressive rise through the legal world to an ignominious end. Gonzales seemed to sense this in his brief, but emotional, press conference. "I often remind our fellow citizens that we live in the greatest country in the world and that I have lived the American dream. Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days," said the 51-year-old son of migrant workers.
Pundits have wondered for some time how Gonzales could remain attorney general while taking beatings from critics on both sides of the aisle. But like Rove, the other top administration official to resign this month, Gonzales may have waited out the heat in order to give the appearance of leaving on his own terms.
Democrats, including the never camera-shy Schumer, were quick to pounce on the news.
Bush "needs to pick the best person, not his best friend" to replace Gonzales, said Schumer in a press conference this morning. Noting that now all three of the top DOJ positions are vacant, Schumer added, "The lack of leadership has taken its toll on this department."
On that point, the New York senator is absolutely correct. With its credibility shot, department morale is by all accounts low. Last month, Gonzales sought to correct this by delivering a rare address to DOJ employees via the department's internal TV channel. After apologizing for the allegations being hurled at them, Gonzales vowed, "Since I've never been one to quit, I've decided that the best course of action is to remain here and fix the problems. That is exactly what I am doing."
If he chooses, Bush has a week to install a new AG by recess appointment. It's unclear, though, how much pushback Democrats would give during confirmation hearings, particularly if the nominee is Clement or Chertoff. One of the aftermaths of this affair is that competence is the new goalpost for the attorney general position. Reaction to Gonzales' resignation more or less fell on party lines, but Democrats and Republicans seem to be united in looking forward to a fresh start for the Department of Justice.
NationalJournal.com has compiled reaction here, and TPMmuckraker has a copy of the resignation letter. The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog has a rundown of possible AG candidates, while Legal Times speculates on where Gonzales might be headed next. The Washington Post's Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic's Steve Clemons and the editors of National Review happily bid Gonzales adieu. Click here for an enlarged photo of Gonzales' last supper with the Bushes, taken during their fateful lunch yesterday.
Posted at 5:10 PM
Posted to:
Alberto Gonzales, Attorney Scandal, Bush Administration, Paul Clement, President Bush
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