Alberto Gonzales is the Eightieth Attorney General of the United States, but he doesn't seem to know that. Prior to being swown as Attorney General in 2005, he was Counsel to the President. Apparently he thinks he is still the president's private attorney rather than the Attorney of the people of the United States, "who prosecutes on behalf of justice."
Mr. Gonzales graduated from Harvard Law School in 1982. He was then an attorney with Vinson & Elkins in Houston, Texas from 1982 until 1994, where he was made a partner. In 1994 he was appointed General Counsel to Governor Bush, and later appointed Secretary of State in 1997. In January 1999, Governor Bush appointed him as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. In January of 2001, he was appointed Counsel to President George Bush, then in November of 2004 he was appointed by President Bush as Attorney General of the United States.
A review of Mr. Gonzales' background indicates why he may think that his loyalties should remain with George W. Bush. If not for the appointments by George Bush, he would most likely still be a lawyer in Houston, Texas. While being a lawyer in Houston probably provides for a comfortable existance, it's nothing like being a former state Supreme Court Justice, and a former state Attorney General, and now, Attorney General of the United States. But he needs to understand that while George Bush has been his patron, and it is only fitting and proper for him to be grateful, he is now the Attorney General of the United States. He now represents the people of the United States.
There could be a protracted debate about the competence and execution of the office of Attorney General by John Mitchell, Edwin Meese, Robert Kennedy, Ramsey Clark, et. al., but the issue that is of importance is the execution of the office by Alberto Gonzales. There could also a long discussion regarding the actions of Mr. Gonzales before he took the oath "to protect and defend the Constitution." The issue is that the United States does not have an Attorney General in Mr. Gonzales; we have a servant of the president who does as he is told.
Gonzales showed where his loyalties were during his Senate confirmation hearings. He apparently lied to Senator Russ Feingold, when he was asked whether the president could contravene laws and spy on U.S. citizens without a warrant. Gonzales said that that warrantless eavesdropping was a "hypothetical situation ... [and] ... not the policy or the agenda of this president" to authorize actions that conflict with existing law. Everyone now knows that the domestic spying operations began soon after September 11, 2001, more than three years earlier. Gonzales testified before Congress, February 6, 2006, that he had knowledge of the U.S. domestic spying program while he was White House Counsel. Gonzales has avoided further investigation surrounding his testimony, partly because Republican Senator Arlen Specter refused to swear in Gonzales, but also because confirmation hearings testimony was ruled as off limits as a precondition to questioning Gonzales. (wikipedia) Gonzales could still be prosecuted for giving false statements to Congress (18 USC 1001 and 18 USC 1505), but that has not happened, and is not likely to happen while Republicans control the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Gonzales now defends the same warrantless eavesdropping that he described as "hypothetical" by claiming executive powers and the AUMF Congressional resolution allow warrantless eavesdropping within the United States. In addition, it appears that he was misleading, at best, during his February 6 congressional testimony. Later that month he sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that said "I did not and could not address ... any other classified intelligence activities ... I was confining my remarks to the Terrorist Surveillance Program as described by the President, the legality of which was the subject." Apparently there are other illegal Surveillance Programs being conducted under the supervision of the NSA, and apparently with the approval of Gonzales.
Gonzales provides cover for the Bush administration on any and all issues. Ruth Marcus, in an article published by the Washington Post, observed that "Gonzales doesn't seem to have an adequate grasp of what's happening in his own department or much influence in setting administration policy." The article recounted some of Gonzales' latest congressional testimony:
Asked about House-passed legislation that would bar Justice from enforcing a year-old law requiring trigger locks on newly sold handguns, Gonzales said he was "not aware of" the dispute. Asked about his department's prosecutions of corrupt Border Patrol agents (described in a front-page story in this newspaper), Gonzales said he would "have to get back to you."
And when Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) inquired whether the administration supported reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act as passed by the House, Gonzales didn't seem empowered to give him a straight answer -- though the Judiciary Committee was set to take up the measure that afternoon. "I don't know if I'm in a position to state that as an administration we're going to support that," Gonzales said.
Gonzales as witness is a maddening exercise in jello-nailing. "I'm going to move on and accept your non-answer, because I don't think I'm going to get anything more on that subject, and perhaps nothing more on the next subject," Specter told Gonzales after a fruitless line of questioning about whether Justice was -- as the attorney general had said in May -- considering prosecuting journalists for publishing leaks.
The article also highlighted some of the other "non-answer" answers to the senator's questions. Among them, the news that the president had personally killed an internal Justice investigation into the domestic spying program by refusing to grant the security clearances to department lawyers. Apparently with Gonzales's approval. Ms. Marcus also said "Attorney General Gonzales doesn't seem to have any less zeal for unbridled presidential power -- or any less willingness to make outlandish arguments on its behalf -- than did White House Counsel Gonzales." Apparently I am not the only one who has noticed that Gonzales thinks he is still Counsel to the President.
When Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox, Richardson resigned rather than violate his oath of office. When Nixon subsequently told Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to to fire Cox, he resigned too. They both knew that their service was to the Constitution, not the president. Gonzales doesn't seem to understand that.
(Crossposted on My Left Wing)