Gonzales' Costly Bungles

National Review Online: If The Attorney General Must Be Let Go To Preserve Policy, Do So

(National Review Online)  This column was written by the editors of National Review Online.

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Sen. Chuck Schumer voted against the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, and now he’s in the headlines again because he hasn’t changed his mind. Faced with Schumer’s brief against Gonzales in the furor over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, counsel for the defense would have a very tough time denying management failings at the Department of Justice.

Yes, it’s perfectly legitimate for the administration to replace U.S. attorneys who, as political appointees, serve at the pleasure of the president. President Clinton, after all, sacked all 93 U.S. attorneys when he took office in 1993. Critics of the current administration are sputtering that politics may have been involved in the recent firings. But guess who usually recommends U.S.-attorney nominees? U.S. senators. Politics will always have some role in these appointments, and there’s nothing wrong with that, so long as no one is improperly influencing criminal cases.

But the Gonzales Justice Department managed to mishandle the firings into a scandal. At one point, the department said that the U.S. attorneys had been removed for “performance-related” reasons. Most of the fired prosecutors understandably considered this a smear and were outraged. Both Gonzales and his top aides have now offered serial justifications of the firings, and have said misleading things about who ordered them. Gonzales says he wasn't aware of his just-resigned chief of staff's coordination with the White House concerning the U.S. attorneys — a highly embarrassing line of defense.

This episode coincides with an internal audit’s revelation that the FBI has misused national-security letters, a kind of subpoena the FBI can issue without the approval of a judge or prosecutor. This second controversy, along with the U.S.-attorney fiasco, has fueled calls for Gonzales’s resignation and sparked demands that the executive branch’s authority be circumscribed. If forced to choose, we’d much prefer the former. The administration’s supporters should consider whether the price of keeping Gonzales in office will be the surrender of important policies in order to try to appease his critics.

Seeing opponents of the administration pile on over the “purge” understandably gets conservatives’ backs up. Take Jack Cafferty, CNN’s cheap version of MSNBC’s lefty blowhard Keith Olbermann. This week, Cafferty — a member of the “best political team on television” according to poor Wolf Blitzer, who is forced to say so roughly every 15 minutes — called Gonzales “a glorified water boy for the White House” and offered the hackneyed opinion that “if you look up the word ‘weasel’ in the dictionary, Wolf, you’ll see Alberto Gonzales’s picture there.” Clever.

Then there’s the liberal hypocrisy. During the 1995 congressional hearings that attempted to determine the FBI’s precise role in the fiery deaths two years earlier of 86 people, including 26 children, in Waco, Texas, then-Rep. Chuck Schumer accused Congress of “Monday-morning quarterbacking.” Facing a clearly inadequate FBI review of its actions in Waco, Schumer declared, “If we did hearings on D-Day, we’d end up court-martialing General Eisenhower.” In 1993, when attorney general Janet Reno lamely responded to the deaths by saying, “I’m accountable — the buck stops with me,” her Democratic supporters on Capitol Hill were entirely satisfied with her performance.

So there is plenty of political opportunism in the campaign to get Gonzales’s scalp. But it’s not just personnel that are at risk in partisan fights. Blunders in the U.S.-attorney controversy have already forced a costly reversal in policy. The administration has dropped its opposition to Democratic legislation that would restore federal judges’ ability to appoint interim U.S. attorneys, a practice that the Bush administration had rightly seen as an improper intrusion on executive prerogatives.

Next will be an assault on the Patriot Act, thanks to the FBI’s inexcusable bungling of the national-security letters. It appears that at least some NSLs mislead the parties to whom they were issued or were obtained in circumstances where their use was not warranted. The Bureau also didn’t keep proper records of NSL use, creating a situation in which Congress was unable to obtain accurate information from the executive branch and was thus impeded in exercising its oversight function.

Critics of the War on Terror say that the FBI shouldn’t have the authority to issue these letters in the first place. Although we have supported most of the legal changes designed to aid the war, on this issue we are inclined to agree that the FBI’s authority should be scaled back. Attorneys at the Justice Department should sign off before the FBI issues NSLs. This change can be made administratively, and requires no revision of the Patriot Act.

Although these fumbles don’t rise to the level of a firing offense, Alberto Gonzales could yet become a liability on matters more important than he is. When he took office, Gonzales pledged to put the mission and well-being of the Department of Justice above all other considerations. We hope he still feels that way, even in the face of pressure to appease his liberal critics.

[clestes-2009]

The Bush administration has abused its power since the first day of taking office. The list of laws it has broken is so long it would take pages just to list them all!

We can start with the totally ILLEGAL invasion of Iraq.

Then there is LYING to the American people.

Oh and how about ignoring the first admenment freedom of speech, or illegal search and seizure, and of course forgetting about Habius Corpus.

Ignoring the Geneva Convention.

Complete disregard for the rights of private property owners.

Forgetting about the seperation of church and state.

Then we can consider gutting the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and let's not forget the Roadless Rule Act.

Dubya, Cheney and the ENTIRE ADMINISTRATION should all be charged as traitors at the most and common law breakers at the least.

Every bit of money they have made from breaking all these laws should be confiscated and used to pay down on the massive debt these stupid *** have left the American people to pay off and they should ALL GO TO JAIL.

[tucano2]

Mexican illegal alien drug smuggler gets shot in the butt escaping back over the USA/Mexico border Bush wants to erase. Drug smuggler tells his Mom who calls wife of another US Border Patrol who tips off her stooge husband who calls Mexican Consulate which calls Rove who gets clearance from Bush and orders Gonzales to hammer these two American Border Patrol Officers because they have upset the Mexicans - Gonzales orders Sutton to do whatever is necessary to hammer the two USA Border Patrol Officers and get the Mexican Consulate and the Mexican Drug Lords off Bushs case. Gonzales follows orders from Bush/Rove to dump any District Attorney who dares to prosecute either Drug Lords or Illegal Aliens. All sound familier? Sound like the history of Compion and Ramos and others? Sound crooked? Sound like selling out the USA? Sound traitorous? Sound like just what Bush/Rove/Gonzales/Sutton might do? Did, in fact, do?........Duh, Yeah, you betcha

[adian1-2009]

So, what you mean is that we are stuck with a rotten system? Come on! To equate legitimacy with morality, like you do, is also outrageous. And then, you are not entirely forthcoming. If it is true that whenever a new administration comes in it is common to replace federal prosecutors, it is so when the new administration is from a different party. It has never happened when the same party stays in power, especially when the same president is re-elected. Besides, this one is just a straw in the history of Gonzales. And, to add a little more, your defense of Gonzales based on wrongdoings of previous administrations or of previous AG's is beyond understanding. Unless it is that you are biased, also for political reasons. Well, what am I saying? You ARE!!!

[tucano2]

Mexican illegal alien drug smuggler gets shot in the butt escaping back over the USA/Mexico border Bush wants to erase. Drug smuggler tells his Mom who calls wife of another US Border Patrol who tips off her stooge husband who calls Mexican Consulate which calls Rove who gets clearance from Bush and orders Gonzales to hammer these two American Border Patrol Officers because they have upset the Mexicans - Gonzales orders Sutton to do whatever is necessary to hammer the two USA Border Patrol Officers and get the Mexican Consulate and the Mexican Drug Lords off Bushs case. Gonzales follows orders from Bush/Rove to dump any District Attorney who dares to prosecute either Drug Lords or Illegal Aliens. All sound familier? Sound like the history of Compion and Ramos and others? Sound crooked? Sound like selling out the USA? Sound traitorous? Sound like just what Bush/Rove/Gonzales/Sutton might do? Did, in fact, do?........Duh, Yeah, you betcha

[frankly06]

We need a Communist Revolution in the USA. Everbudy knows that reel Communism has never been tried.

We need to round up all republicans, neocons,etc and send them all to re-educashun camps to teach them how to be politcaly corect. WE CANNOT TOLERATE DESENT, we need to imprison all conservatives until they convert to OUR way of thinking. When everbudy is politicaly corect and thinks like us, then we can all get along

Re-distribute monie from rich and give to the pour, that's what the rich diserve for wurking so hard. It isnt fare that people who wurk hard get payd more.

Communize health care first, then energy, then corporations so that everbudy works for the state.

There is no god, only the state, WE know it takes a village.

Long live the gloreus peeples republic of amerika

[taddles-2009]

Oh funny, the NRO was kissing his a$$ a few months ago now they want him gone. Pathetic how irrelevant the NRO has become.

[johnshaft4]

A special prosecutor must be appointed to prosecute sleaze bag Gonzales. He must be imprisoned along with the rest of the Bush crime family/syndicate.

[gkc99]

"Fumblings" my a$$--Gonzo lied under oath! He must be impeached--right, Newt?

[marcodele]

The Bush Administration: "Suddenly Last Summer."

[johnshaft4]

It is kinda of funny that the Bush administration is devouring their own.

[xfredmenzies]

I like how NRO is determined to see a difference between conservative policy, things like the Patriot Act and executive power, and everyday meaning of those policies. The FBI was always going to abuse the Patriot Act, no institution can ever be trusted with those kinds of powers without oversight. But the best part about this Gonzales scandal, which is the worst thing that could happen for NRO, is that when the public found out about it, these guys continued to deny and lie about what they had done. They should know by now that doing something wrong is one thing, but then covering it up is even worst.

[marcodele]

clemenhagen1: excellent post.

I'm sure Limbaugh and O'Reilly won't explain those finer details to their followers. They appeal to the 8th grade mind for their ratings.

[tejasdemo]

Clemen,

Could not have said it better myself.

Republicans are Nazis with better suits.

[clemenhagen1]

"Yes, it%u2019s perfectly legitimate for the administration to replace U.S. attorneys who, as political appointees, serve at the pleasure of the president. President Clinton, after all, sacked all 93 U.S. attorneys when he took office in 1993."

If it weren't so disgusting I might be able to admire the coordination and execution of the right-wing echo chambers disinformation campaigns and spin/distortion techniques. Note exibit A from above:
You point at a fact, that administrations do appoint new attorneys, but you only mention Clinton. You deliberately ignore the fact the Reagan & Bush the First did the same exact thing. You also neglect to say that this reappointment process happens at the beginning of the new presidents term. Finally, you completely ignore the core issue of the case, which is that this administration put political pressure on prosecutors to rush through cases against Democrats, even though evidence did not merit a case, and ignore cases against blatantly corrupt Republicans. They then fired those prosecutors who refused, due to professional scruples, to corrupt the integrity of the judicial system with this Rovian outrage. Brilliant Orwellian misinformation; absolutely textbook propaganda technique to sway the ignorant Republican masses. Bravo.

[wogerwabbit]

"When Gonzales called the Geneva Conventions "quaint," he convinced me he has none of the basic qualities this country needs for Attorney General."

Well said, sesanders1. Alberto Gonzales has no idea what our constitution is about and he has no intention of defending it. Supporting torture is about the most un-American thing I have ever heard. Gonzales has shamed us all.

[gkc99]

The Bushits always say they were after Clinton, not for getting from Monica what they can only dream of getting from Anne Coulter, but for lying under oath. So now Gonzo lied under oath. If he's not fired, he should be impeached.
And let's impeach the real president too--Karl Rove.

--"you're doing a heck of a job, Gonza!"

The attorney general should have, at the very least, a modicum of respect for the rule of law, and he should not be the toady of an incompetent presidential administration dedicated to undermining our constitutional rights. When Gonzales called the Geneva Conventions "quaint," he convinced me he has none of the basic qualities this country needs for Attorney General. He is simply Bush's tool and should never have been confirmed in the first place!

[Razzl]

Notice how totally lame their sarcasm sounds when they try to bad-mouth all the good guys like Keith Olbermann and Wolf Blitzer? Their sado-masochistic neo-fascist world is crumbling around them and no amount of attitude can make them cool again.

Gonzalez must go AND THE POLICY MUST GO, TOO.