Gonzales succumbs to ‘toxic’ tide - Announcenent of his service comes in much the same way that he provided it – without divulging any information

Gonzales succumbs to ‘toxic’ tide - Alberto Gonzales announced the end of his service to the Bush administration in much the same way that he provided it – without divulging any information
By Edward Luce and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: August 27 2007 19:08 | Last updated: August 27 2007 19:08


Alberto Gonzales announced the end of his service to the Bush administration on Monday in much the same way that he provided it – without divulging any further information. The man who said “I don’t recall” or “I have no recollection” more than 100 times in testimony to Congress this year will go down as one of the most secretive cabinet officers in modern US history.

An intensely loyal “Bushie”, Mr Gonzales will also be seen as America’s most partisan attorney-general since John Mitchell, Richard Nixon’s senior law officer, who resigned in 1972.

A close friend of George W. Bush before he became governor of Texas in 1994, Mr Gonzales was appointed as a White House counsel when Mr Bush took office in January 2001. He became attorney-general in 2005 after the retirement of John Ashcroft.

“As attorney-general, Alberto Gonzales’ first duty was to serve the constitution and uphold the law of the land but he continued to behave as though he were Mr Bush’s personal lawyer,” said Carl Tobias, a professor of constitutional law. “It is hard to think of any single figure who has done as much as Gonzales to politicise the Department of Justice or who saw the law in such a political light.”

Monday’s resignation will bring into greater focus Mr Bush’s tendency to place loyalty above all other qualities among those who surround him. Just three weeks ago the president said he had full confidence in Mr Gonzales in spite of the fact that the attorney-general’s sworn testimony to Congress had been directly contradicted by Robert Mueller, head of the FBI.

Mr Gonzales had denied that as White House counsel he had visited Mr Ashcroft on his sick bed in hospital in 2004 to press the then attorney-general to sign off on the renewal of the president’s still secret – and allegedly unconstitutional – expansion of wire-tapping authority. Mr Gonzales’ account was also contradicted in testimony to Congress this year by Jim Comey, who had accompanied Mr Gonzales on the 2004 hospital visit as acting attorney-general.

By sticking with Mr Gonzales in spite of growing calls from Republican as well as Democratic senators for his removal, many believed that Mr Bush was ultimately seeking to protect Karl Rove, his senior political adviser, who Democrats believed was the prime mover behind a separate controversy over the allegedly political sacking of nine federal prosecutors last year.

But Mr Rove’s resignation this month and the fact that Mr Gonzales’ remaining 17 months as attorney-general were likely to be dominated by continuing congressional investigations left Mr Bush little choice but to accept his resignation. A number of lawmakers had also joined calls to impeach Mr Gonzales in a tide that Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, described as “the race to be most toxic”.

“They said that Karl Rove was leaving town before the sheriff arrived and the same might be doubly true of Alberto Gonzales,” said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian. “People will be looking through the official records for many years to ferret out just how deep the political corruption went during his time at justice.”

But it was Mr Gonzales’ role as White House counsel in Mr Bush’s first term that will prove more controversial. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, he played a central role in helping to expand the powers of the presidency.

Among other initiatives Mr Gonzales helped frame the legal justification for extending the White House’s “executive privilege” to permit the detention of suspects without trial, to eavesdrop on conversations without judicial warrant, to circumvent the Geneva conventions on torture (which Mr Gonzales described as “quaint”) and to establish the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.

A number of senior officials, including  Robert Gates, the secretary of defence, and Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, have been arguing for the closure of Guantánamo. Mr Gonzales was thought to have been an ally of Dick Cheney, the vice-president, in arguing against it. His departure could strengthen the hand of those pushing for its closure.

Attention will now focus on whom Mr Bush will nominate to replace Mr Gonzales and how the Democratic Congress will treat the nominee. Paul Clement, the solicitor-general, will be acting attorney-general until then. “If Bush wants to avoid controversy he can keep Clement in place indefinitely,” said Mr Tobias.

Mr Gonzales will bequeath a Justice Department shorn of almost its entire upper echelon. The top three positions – of attorney-general, deputy attorney-general and associate attorney-general – are vacant. It is thought likely that both Mr Gonzales and Mr Rove will continue to cite “executive privilege” in refusing to testify on sensitive matters to Congress, whose investigation will continue.

Timeline: Bush loyalist
Nov 1994 Alberto Gonzales leaves private legal practice to serve as general counsel to George W. Bush as governor of Texas. Bush later appoints him secretary of state and, in 1999, a justice of the Texas Supreme Court

Jan 2001 Gonzales appointed as White House counsel. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Gonzales becomes an architect of the legal framework surrounding detainees held in Guantánamo Bay

Feb 2005 Takes over from John Ashcroft as attorney-general, the first Hispanic in the post

Jun 2007 Narrowly avoids a vote of no-confidence in the Senate. Gonzales had faced calls for his resignation following charges that he had improperly dismissed nine district attorneys on political grounds