Chicago Tribune Editorial - The damage at Justice/Goodbye and good riddance - D.C. | Attorney general quits and even Republicans glad

Chicago Tribune Editorial - The damage at Justice
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
August 28, 2007
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President Bush has done a lousy job of picking attorneys general. His first, John Ashcroft, was a grandstanding ideologue who demonized his critics by saying their efforts "only aid terrorists." His second, Alberto Gonzales, was a longtime Texas pal of the president who saw his role as toadying to the White House.

With Gonzales' departure, is it too much to hope that this time the president will choose someone who can regain the trust Americans are entitled to have in a department that is supposed to stand for justice?

It's been a long time since the country has had an attorney general who could inspire real pride. But you have to go back to the Watergate scandal to find one who has done as much as Gonzales to damage public confidence.

His dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys last year raised suspicions that they were sacked for failing to advance the interests of the Republican Party -- mostly by refusing to pursue investigations of political corruption against Democrats. Congressional hearings provided a good deal of evidence to support the suspicions.

Among the most damning witnesses was the attorney general, who was repeatedly unable to give a plausible explanation of why these prosecutors had to go. So embarrassing was his performance that even some Bush allies in the Senate threw up their hands in disgust.

But Gonzales was less the cause of the problem than a symptom of a deeper ill: the administration's unwillingness to recognize that the attorney general has to put the interests of the citizenry above the interests of his president or party. To politicize law enforcement is to risk forfeiting the public's basic faith in our system of government, by suggesting that prosecutions are just a matter of who's got power.

Former Deputy Atty. Gen. James Comey, who served under both Ashcroft and Gonzales, was asked by one committee about claims that even career prosecutors, who are supposed to be chosen without regard for political affiliations, were subject to partisan litmus tests. If that was going on, he replied, it "deprives the department of its lifeblood, which is the ability to stand up and have juries of all stripes believe what you say, and have sheriffs and judges and jailers -- the people we deal with -- trust the Department of Justice."

Comey is the sort of person who could help rebuild the department's ethos as well as its reputation, but his unwillingness to automatically defend the administration has alienated the White House. Independence, however, is a trait desperately needed in the next attorney general.

When Gonzales was named to succeed Ashcroft in 2004, this page said it would "be his task to restore the trust and prestige of an office that his predecessor did so much to injure." Instead, Gonzales damaged it further.

The president ought to have learned from this experience. When he chooses a new attorney general, it should be someone who commands respect across party lines for ability, integrity, a level head and devotion to the good of the country. It's his third chance.

Goodbye and good riddance - D.C. | Attorney general quits and even Republicans glad
BY DAVID ESPO
Copyright by The Associated Press
August 28, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation Monday after months of draining controversy drew expressions of relief from Republicans and a vow from Democrats to pursue their investigation into fired federal prosecutors.

President Bush, Gonzales' most dogged defender, told reporters he had accepted the resignation reluctantly. ''His good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons,'' Bush said.

The president named Paul Clement, the solicitor general, as a temporary replacement. With less than 18 months remaining in office, there was no indication when Bush would name a successor -- or how quickly or easily the Senate might confirm one.

Apart from the president, there were few Republican expressions of regret following the departure of the nation's first Hispanic attorney general, a man once hailed as the embodiment of the American Dream.
''Our country needs a credible, effective attorney general who can work with Congress on critical issues,'' said GOP Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire. ''Alberto Gonzales' resignation will finally allow a new attorney general to take on this task.''

Democrats were less charitable.

''I have long believed that Alberto Gonzales subverted justice to promote a political agenda," Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said.

Gonzales made a brief appearance before reporters at the Justice Department to announce his resignation. ''Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days,'' said the son of migrants.

One of the controversies dogging Gonzales has been the firings of eight Justice Department prosecutors whom Democrats say were axed for political reasons.