Gonzales Resigns, Hallelujah
From the Desk of Mace

It’s about time. After multiple scandals and much scrutiny, Alberto Gonzales has finally thrown in the towel and resigned as Attorney General on Monday August 27th He was driven from office after a wrenching standoff with congressional critics over his honesty and competence but he's not leaving empty handed. He's got a resume filled with advocating torture and domestic driven from office after a wrenching standoff with congressional critics over his honesty and competence spying with a flagrant disregard for the U.S. Constitution and Geneva Conventions. It is a sad commentary that Alberto Gonzales' greatest service to the nation during his tenure as U.S. attorney general is his resignation.

The Senate will now have to confirm a new Attorney General, and we have to make sure that it's not another Gonzales.  Maybe Bush will appoint someone to serve justice, not political agendas. Gonzales misunderstood that distinction when he took the nation's top law-enforcement job. Tell your Senators to only confirm an Attorney General who truly believes in democracy and freedom -- not another Bush crony who fights to restrict civil liberties and ignores the Constitution.

Congressional aides and lawmakers agreed that any nomination of a new attorney general was almost certain to be acrimonious. After the Alberto fiasco, any new nominee will be subject to intense scrutiny and will face a potentially nasty Senate confirmation and a beleaguered Justice Department badly in need of leadership Selecting a successor to Gonzales will be a challenge because the Senate is unlikely to confirm anyone as aggressive as Gonzales in the defense of executive power and the practice of secrecy. Bush should name a credible successor with the proper respect for the office and reverence for the U.S. Constitution. We shall see!

Republicans and Democrats alike had demanded his departure over the botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firings of U.S. attorneys, but President Bush had defiantly stood by his old friend for months until accepting his resignation which is not effective until September 17. “After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position and I accept his decision,” Bush said from Texas, where he is vacationing.

Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general until a replacement is found and confirmed by the Senate. Bush said the attorney generals “good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.” It’s funny what happens when you lie, break the law and evade questions from Congressmen.  Though some Republicans echoed the president’s veiled slap at Democrats, Gonzales had few defenders left in Washington. Many Republicans actually welcomed his departure, some quietly and others publicly so.

In April, Gonzales answered “I don’t know” and “I can’t recall” scores of times while questioned by Congress about the firings of the eight US attorneys.  Even some Republicans said his testimony was evasive. (How you feel about the head of the Justice Department taking the Fifth Amendment while testifying in Congress?) It would make me REALLY nervous. Not Bush, the president praised Gonzales’ performance and said he was “honest” and “honorable.”

At a news conference, the president grew irritated when asked about accountability in his administration and turned the tables on the Democratic Congress.” Implicit in your questions is that Al Gonzales did something wrong.(Lying to Congress?) I haven’t seen Congress say he’s done anything wrong,” Bush said testily at the time. Actually, many in Congress had accused Gonzales of wrongdoing. Bush steadfastly — and at times angrily — refused to give in to critics, even from his own GOP, who argued that Gonzales should go.

Gonzales, whom Bush once considered for appointment to the Supreme Court, is the fourth top-ranking administration official to leave since November 2006, following Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, who had a high-ranking Pentagon job before going to the World Bank as its president, and top political and policy adviser Karl Rove.

As attorney general, chief law enforcement office of the United States, and earlier as White House counsel, Gonzales pushed for expanded presidential powers, including the eavesdropping authority. He drafted controversial rules for military war tribunals and sought to limit the legal rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay — prompting lawsuits by civil libertarians who said the government was violating the Constitution in its pursuit of terrorists.

“Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid D-Nev .He suggested that investigations into the Justice Department will not end until Congress gets “to the bottom of this mess.” (Give ‘em hell Harry!).

One matter still under investigation is the 2006 dismissal of several federal prosecutors, (Including Nevada’s own Daniel Bogden) who serve at the president’s pleasure. Lawmakers said the action appeared to be politically motivated, and some of the fired U.S. attorneys said they felt pressured to investigate Democrats before elections.

In 2004, Gonzales pressed to reauthorize a secret domestic spying program over the Justice Department’s protests. Gonzales, then White House counsel, and Bush’s chief of staff Andrew Card during a dramatic hospital confrontation sought approval from then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was in intensive care recovering from surgery. Ashcroft refused...

Similarly, Gonzales found himself on the defensive in March because of the FBI’s improper and, in some cases, illegal prying into Americans’ personal information during terror and spy probes. Gonzales' resignation should not dissuade Congress from its search for the truth. That Gonzales crossed the line so easily and apparently so often is a lesson that history deserves.

He demonstrated that his loyalties lie with the president and his political agenda, not the American people or the evenhanded and impartial enforcement of our laws. He reminds me of a fox guarding a chicken coop.  Far be it from me to demonize a law enforcement officer. Some people say” the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know. I certainly hope not. I’m an optimist by nature. Hope springs eternal. I’m hoping that our next A.G. is more conscientious, intellectually honest and someone with a moral code that isn’t subject to the whims of what is politically expedient. But with M.. Gonzales, the bar certainly isn’t very high!. C-ya Mace

Mace Yampolsky is criminal defense lawyer located at 625 South Sixth Street Las Vegas Nevada 89101. His office number is 702-385-9777.  His website is www.macelaw.com.  His column appears weekly in this newspaper. If you would like to comment on this article, he can be reached by email at mjy@macelaw.com