Congress Must Force Gonzales Out

The Nation: If The Attorney General Won't Quit On His Own, Congress Should Impeach Him

(The Nation)  This column was written by John Nichols.

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Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says he is not going anywhere.

Never mind that he is caught up in the biggest scandal involving a sitting Attorney General since the sordid days of the 1920s.

Never mind that the scandal that plagues Gonzales involves the same sort of concerns about the politicization of the Department of Justice and the federal bureaucracy that ultimately forced Richard Nixon from office in the 1970s.

Never mind that even Republicans are saying the firing of U.S. attorneys who would not agree to launch pre-election prosecutions of Democrats has created "a crisis with the Justice Department" — to borrow a phrase from conservative Nevada Senator John Ensign — while Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are beginning to echo the assessment of New York Senator Charles Schumer, who says that Gonzales has engaged in an "unprecedented breach of trust and abuse of power."

Never mind that Schumer well sums up the crisis when he says that Gonzales has "either forgotten the oath he took to uphold the Constitution or doesn't understand that his duty to uphold the law is greater than his duty to protect the president."

Never mind that Schumer and a growing number of senators and presidential candidates have called on Gonzales to step down.

Gonzales knows that calls for his resignation are no more consequential than complaints about his disregard for the rule of law when it comes to torture and civil liberties.

While he may in fact have violated his oath of office and placed himself in direct conflict with the Constitution, the Attorney General claims that he is accountable only to his president.

"I work for the American people and serve at the pleasure of the president," says Gonzales.

President Bush, the Attorney General argues, will decide whether he will continue to run the Justice Department.

Gonzales ought to peruse his Constitution a little more closely.

The Attorney General does serve at the pleasure of the president, who nominated him to serve in the position two years ago and who, according to initial White House statements, "has all the confidence in the world" in Gonzales.

But Gonzales occupies the venerable position of Attorney General because the Senate, which is empowered by the Constitution to provide the president with advice and consent regarding Cabinet picks, consented to his becoming the nation's chief law enforcement officer.

The Congress has the power to withdraw that consent via the process of impeachment.

If Gonzales refuses to do the honorable thing and resign of his own accord, and if Bush refuses to cause his appointee to surrender control of the Department of Justice, Congress is fully empowered to force the hand of the Attorney General.

The Constitution is clear on this point. "The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors," reads Section 4 of Article 2.

Congress has a rich and healthy history of withdrawing its consent and aggressively challenging lawbreaking attorneys general. In 1923, after Republican political fixer Harry Micajah Daugherty turned the Department of Justice into a den of iniquity, the great Montana populist Senator Burton K. Wheeler led progressives in a fight to bring Daugherty down for protecting the oil profiteers involved in the Teapot Dome scandal and a host of other wrongs. The Attorney General and his allies in the Department of Justice fought back by securing an indictment against Wheeler on trumped up charges, but the progressive reformers stood their ground.

Allies in the House launched impeachment initiatives, and Wheeler and his compatriots in both the Democratic and Republican parties made it clear that the Senate was ready to try the Attorney General. In short order, Daugherty was forced to resign.

Two years later, after Harlan Fiske Stone had cleaned up the mess Daugherty created, Republican President Calvin Coolidge nominated corporate lawyer Charles Warren, another conservative political operative, to serve as attorney general. Prodded by Wheeler and his fellow progressives, a Republican-controlled Senate rejected the Warren nomination twice in a week.

Wheeler said his purpose in refusing to allow attorneys general to serve merely at the president's pleasure was to restore the rule of law and respect for a Constitution "from which we have wandered in recent times."

In this time when another attorney general has wandered from Constitutional fundamentals, the question is not: "Will Alberto Gonzales, of his own accord, do the right thing?" It has been confirmed, time and again, that he won't.

Nor is the question: "Will George Bush, of his own accord, do the right thing?" It has been confirmed, time and again, that he won't.

The question is whether there is a Burton K. Wheeler in this Congress, a member of the House or Senate who is willing to utter the "i" word with regard to Alberto Gonzales and to fight to restore the rule of law and respect for a Constitution "from which we have wandered in recent times."

[adian1-2009]

Bravo, Mr. Nichols! Bravo!! Bravo!!! No doubt that Gonzales deserves to be impeached. The problem is that there are too many rubbish senators from the Republican Party that won't think about what is good for our country, but merely what they think is good for their electoral gains. Of course what is and has been at stake is the prevalence of our Constitution and of the rule of law! Of course turning the Department of Justice into an arm of a political party, no matter which, is to inflict grave harm to our country. Of course it amounts to betray our trust! But to expect that there are going to be enough persons in Congress and Senate to undertake the duties we entrusted them with, Mr. Nichols, is to daydream! I'm sorry for saying that, but lamentably, that is the real truth!!!

[cdnunn]

Time to remind conservatives that presidents routinely replace all US attorneys at the beginning of their presidency, especially when the white house changes parties. What's unprecedented w/Bush is NO president has ever fired his attorneys in the middle of his term of office. I realize this distinction might be too difficult for conservatives/repulsicans to understand, but the rest of us can appreciate it. This will be Bush's watergate.

[thgdriver]

fredgrad2000
You are wasting your time with the libs here. They don't want the truth. Janet Reno with the blessing of their godly leader Bill Clinton, killed 17 Children in Waco Texas. Thats fine with them. She killed a mans family in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. (his 14 year old son was shot in the back as he ran away), the four dogs were shot dead, the mans wife was shot dead the next day. By the way, at trial, the man was acquitted. That's fine with them. Then she raided a private home and ripped a small child out of the arms of his Aunt and shipped him back to Fidel's Commie Cuba. That's fine with them too.

All of the above is true and correct but the liberals here all say, "well that was in the past lets move on". They hate it when you rub their nose in the facts of Janet and Bills heinous crimes against children.

Al Gonzales is an Angel when compared to that murdering child killer bitcC.

[dallison7]

Janet Reno fired 92 of 93 US Attorneys in 1993, for political reasons...let's not forget that in all this discussion of 8 attorneys fired here.
Posted by fredgrad2000


Trying to do an end run there freddie-boy? Instead of using Clinton's name you use Janet Reno? Sorry, son, you're not fooling anyone... you are still using the only argument you know how to use. (Clinton did something worse) Bill Clinton really stuck in the craw of you Nazis, didn't he? It just kills you to know that William Jefferson Clinton will be remembered as one of the greatest presidents in history, while your 'Monkey Boy' will go down in history as the WORST!!

[marcodele]

Is there like a neocon training camp where the first thing they learn to say is "Clinton did it!"

Do these idjuts know the difference between the changes in a new administration and firing your own appointees because they didn't dispense justice along party lines?

Six years of cut-throat divisive partisan bullies.

[bm6005]

I mean we all knew neocons hated the government, but who imagined that they would go so far as to willfully try to destroy it with incompetence and corruption!
diamtool

That's the beauty of their plan. Sour the American people on anything done by the gov't by simply being totally, willfully incompetent! This is the same method used in American business today, appoint highly educated idiots who don't know the business except for how to outsource it all.

[diamtool]

WARNING:
out of work and/or imprisoned neocon rightie loons are flocking to this site after the "whuppin' of '06".
BUT:
At least all they can do here is whine about the old Clinton days and lick their wounds rather than continuing to wreck our Government or start bogus wars.

rightwingers hate big government so much that the voters should be sure to keep them far away from it in the future. That way disaster victims and wounded war Vets will get the help they deserve as fellow Citizens.
I mean we all knew neocons hated the government, but who imagined that they would go so far as to willfully try to destroy it with incompetence and corruption! As much as they hate "big" government, they sure do love their Big Business and Big money cronies.

So Ricky S, and Macacaman- give my regards to Duke and tell him to keep his head down and stay on the keyboard, I hear pardons for righties are on the way!

[doctor--o]

Alberto Gonzales accurately displays Republican and Bush administration values. No surprise there.

[ramadeyrao]

Even a single deserving official who is got rid of for political reasons by the government is a dangerous thing to happen. There should be an inquiry into this matter and until it has been cleared up there should be some other deserving and qualified individual be the AG. If found guilty the AG should be removed immediately.

RDR

[tuckerndfw]

Presumably, the requirement that the Senate confirm nominations is to prevent the president from rewarding his personal friends and political cronies with appointments to high political offices.

The underlying problem is that the Senate does not properly use its authority to ensure nominees are qualified.

And, it is not unique to this administration. Although it does appear George Bush places personal friendship and loyalty far above qualifications. And, the Senate acts as a rubber stamp, ignoring those lack of qualifications and/or obvious biases that would prevent them from properly carrying out their responsibilities.

The GOP led Senate is ultimately responsible for the numerous unqualified people Bush nominated and they appointed to office. Neither Ashcroft nor Gonzales should have been confirmed.

If Gonzales refuses to step down, and Bush refuses to fire him, the Senate should impeach him. And require his successor to have actual qualifications. Loyalty to Bush or a political party (in this case, the GOP) is not a valid qualification.

[taddles-2009]

"Janet Reno fired 92 of 93 US Attorneys in 1993, for political reasons...let's not forget that in all this discussion of 8 attorneys fired here.
Posted by fredgrad2000 at 06:38 PM : Mar 15, 2007"

Every appointed position in the previous administration tenures their resignation to the incoming President. All the federal attorneys were fired by Reagan and Bush Snr. too. This has nothing to do with the standard practice of putting your own people in place when you take office, this is about firing people because they are not doing what should be a non-partisan job in a partisan enough manner.

The Attorney General and all federal attorneys are supposed to be upholding the law for ALL of us, not just for the Republicans. These people got fired because they were not using the law as a weapon to attack and persecute Republican enemies.

You really want to have federal attorneys act as political hit-men and use their power to persecute enemies of the sitting administration? Remember that the next time a Democrat is elected President...you want him to be able to use the Justice Department as his personal Gestapo?

[clemenhagen1]

Attention all right-wing talking points inbreds: understand a simple fact. Administrations routinely appoint new prosecutors when they take over. Do not point out Clinton because George H. Bush, Ronald Reagan, etc. did the exact same thing. That's an accepted part of the change in administrations. They are once again manipulating your little minds with nonsense. The difference between that and what these guys did is night and day. They placed specific political pressure on the supposedly independent prosecutors to bring charges against Democrats and ignore cases against Republicans. Those who did not expedite cases for political purposes (Iglesias - who got phone calls from Dimenici & Wilson before getting fired) or who prosecuted cases against blatantly corrupt Republicans (Lam who convicted Duke Cunningham and got fired before she could indict Jerry Lewis). Not even similar in nature, these comparisons, and yet one more example of how you've been lied to so much you don't know why you're choking. I believe it must be the sand...pull your head out and breath.

[scott4261]

processor2 (the real one),

All eight were Bush appointees. George W. Bush appointed all new prosecutors, just like Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan.... This happens with each new president. The difference here is that Alberto Gonzales replaced these prosecutors with interim appointments which do not have to go through confirmation in the U.S. Senate. This an effort to replace these prosecutors with Rovian hacks who will skirt the law and the ethical boundaries to the detriment of our civil liberties.

Pay attention, man!

[processor2]

Clinton fired 92 US attorneys

Bush fired only 8 US attorneys

So, who's the bad guy here ??

...

The real "processor2", not the imposter "Processorr2"

[fredgrad2000]

Janet Reno fired 92 of 93 US Attorneys in 1993, for political reasons...let's not forget that in all this discussion of 8 attorneys fired here.

[Syndicate]

You guys make more out of this than is there. Bush fired the prosecutors because some legislators wanted it. He could have refused and risked any future legislation or he could fire some people and keep the legislators happy. Big deal. Happens all the time. Its how you play the game in Washington.

[tejasdemo]

Adios muchacho

[dilluminati]

President Bush effectively blocked a Justice Department investigation of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program, refusing to give security clearances to attorneys who were attempting to conduct the probe, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/18/AR2006071800601.html

One count of obstruction of Justice.

On the firings a second count of false statements and perjury before Congress.

And then finally there is the conflict of interest where: Incidences of Torture and coercion of innocent suspects needs to be fully investigated.

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/18832leg20050128.html

Putting aside the lack of oversight on FISA and national security letters this AG is a debacle.

[Razzl]

Claiming Executive authority for Torture, warrantless spying, and usurpation of Constitutional authority were all proper reasons for impeachment of the AG in the recent past, but of course Congress lacks the courage to protect the country from those abstractions. The present issue, as a continuation of a system of political appointments which has been going on for some time, is not impeachable. It's in the best interest of the country that he resign from office but it's not in the best interest of the country that we fabricate an impeachment drama to make it so. If Congress finds some moral fiber they should skip the AG and head straight for impeaching Cheney and prosecuting Rumsfeld for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[fascistusa]

What??!!

Congress actually do something to stop the Fascists???!!

NO WAY!!

The Elite and AIPAC/ISRAEL rule this Country. Unless Murdock, Gates, Walton, Buffet, ect direct "Congress" to stop the invasion of Iran and take the Fascists out of Power..

This is just another stupid story meant to keep the mindless, brainwashed masses busy....