International Herald Tribune Editorial - Exit Gonzales

International Herald Tribune Editorial - Exit Gonzales
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: August 28, 2007


Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has finally done something important to advance the cause of justice. He has resigned. But his departure alone cannot remove the dark cloud that hangs over the Justice Department. President George W. Bush needs to choose a new attorney general of unquestioned integrity who would work to make the department worthy of its name again. Congress needs to continue to investigate the many scandals Gonzales leaves behind.

When Gonzales was appointed, it seemed doubtful that he would be able to put aside his years as Bush's personal lawyer, which stretched back to the Texas governor's office, and represent the interests of the American people. He never did. In many ways, Gonzales turned out to be the ultimate "loyal Bushie" - a term his Justice Department chief of staff used to describe what his department was looking for in its top prosecutors.

It was just that kind of craven politics - the desire to co-opt the power of the government to win elections - that was the driving force in Gonzales's Justice Department. Dedicated and capable U.S. attorneys were fired for insisting on doing their jobs with integrity - for refusing to put people in jail, or shield them from prosecution, simply to help Republicans win elections.

When Gonzales testified before Congress, his misstatements and memory lapses were so frequent that it was hard to believe they were not intentional. He told Congress many things about the prosecutors' firings that were contradicted by his top aides and by documents. His testimony about the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program also ran counter to many credible sources, including the account of the director of the F.B.I.

There was a more basic problem with Gonzales's tenure: he did not stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law, as an attorney general must. This administration has illegally spied on Americans, detained suspects indefinitely as "enemy combatants," run roughshod over the Geneva Conventions, violated prohibitions on injecting politics into government and defied Congressional subpoenas. In each case, Gonzales gave every indication of being on the side of the lawbreakers, not the law.

Gonzales signed off on the administration's repugnant, and disastrous, torture policy when he was the White House counsel. He later helped stampede Congress into passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which endorsed illegal C.I.A. prisons where detainees may be tortured and established kangaroo courts in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to keep detained foreigners in custody essentially for life. He helped cover up and perpetuate Bush's illegal wiretapping programs, both in the counsel's job and as attorney general. The F.B.I. under his stewardship abused powers it was given after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the name of enhanced national security.

The next attorney general will have two critical tasks. First, he or she should appoint a credible, independent investigator to look into the prosecutors' firings make clear that the investigation will be permitted to follow the facts where they lead.

Second, the next attorney general will have to fix a badly broken department. Many of the top positions are now empty, vacated by aides to Gonzales who came under Congressional scrutiny. They need to be replaced with qualified, nonpolitical professionals.

Gonzales, for all of his undeniable deficiencies, merely reflected the principles of this administration. His resignation is a necessary but hardly sufficient step in restoring the nation's commitment to the rule of law.
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