“It was worse than a crime – it was a blunder!”
РBoulay de la Merthe, on Napoleon’s 1804 murder of the Duc d’Enghein
There is a real distinction between doing a thing badly and doing a bad thing. When the attorney general’s office declined to renew – apparently for political reasons – the employment of eight politically appointed US attorneys they did neither. Or at least they did nothing much better or worse than previous administrations had done. Those who rail against political patronage in the specific case too often have the burden of many a general beam of their own to remove before they can credibly start casting around for other people’s motes. Blame the game, not the player.
But the shambolic response to the apparently unanticipated public uproar over the firings – who knew that partisans on the left could muster such outrage over the sacking of Republican lawyers? – brought to light certain concerns about competency in the upper ranks at justice. Whether those competency issues were sufficient for the rolling of heads was a coin toss, with partisans divided pretty neatly along the lines of the biases they brought with them. There was never any more than one man’s vote that counted anyway. But whatever else you might say, the response was certainly amateurish and damaging to the players’ credibility.
It was done badly.
The latest news from Justice is worse – there’s no airbrushing the lipstick on this particular pig:
The episode involved a 2004 nighttime visit to the hospital room of then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft by Alberto Gonzales, then the White House counsel, and Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff. Only the broadest outlines of this visit were previously known: that Mr. Comey, who was acting as attorney general during Mr. Ashcroft’s illness, had refused to recertify the legality of the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program; that Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Card had tried to do an end-run around Mr. Comey; that Mr. Ashcroft had rebuffed them.
Mr. Comey’s vivid depiction, worthy of a Hollywood script, showed the lengths to which the administration and the man who is now attorney general were willing to go to pursue the surveillance program. First, they tried to coerce a man in intensive care — a man so sick he had transferred the reins of power to Mr. Comey — to grant them legal approval. Having failed, they were willing to defy the conclusions of the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and pursue the surveillance without Justice’s authorization. Only in the face of the prospect of mass resignations — Mr. Comey, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and most likely Mr. Ashcroft himself — did the president back down.
As White House counsel, Gonzales certainly had a role to play in seeking out legal ways for his patron to prosecute the War on Terror. The realization that practically the entire adult leadership at DoJ – including the president’s own appointee as AG – was willing to resign over his efforts should have been a hint that perhaps the particular method he was seeking was extra-Constitutional. The idea of importuning upon Mr. Ashcroft while he was hospitalized as an end run around Mr Comey – the acting attorney general – is simply reprehensible, there’s no other word for it.
This was a bad thing, done badly.
Unlike most politicians, this president is a business major, not a lawyer. His decision to turn the authorization procedure back to Justice so that they could scrub it back inside the lines was less a “backing down” it seems to me than the clarifying wisdom of a man who realizes suddenly that he’s been getting bad advice from counsel. How Gonzalez went from this fiasco to being nominated to fill Ashcroft’s seat is anybody’s guess.
But it’s time for him to give it back.
“…How Gonzalez went from this fiasco to being nominated to fill Ashcroft?
“…How Gonzalez went from this fiasco to being nominated to fill Ashcroft’s seat is anybody’s guess…”
It was helped in part because of the then-republican majority in Congress doing whatever the president wanted and approving appointments.
This detailed testimony by Comey would have never happened if the republicans were still in the majority. We probably only would’ve known about this if/when Comey wrote a book sometime in the future.
It’s telling, too, that Democrats clearly weren’t the only ones who thought this program was extra-Constitutional in execution, not in concept as some would believe.
Gonzales still thinks of himself as the president’s personal lawyer, despite the current job title. Attorneys General defend administrations/governments in lawsuits and prosecute court cases, but they are not personal lawyers for the president (or governors at the state level). They’re the people’s lawyers.
The president owes something big to Gonzales to keep him around for so long. He needs to go back to Texas.
Bonus for those trivia buffs– Comey was the one who appointed USA Patrick Fitzgerald in the CIA leak case while in his capacity as Acting AG, after Ashcroft recused himself in the matter.
I’m convinced Gonzales has naked pictures of somebody stashed in a safes somewhere.
Its long past bed time for the guy. Except if he left, then there would be a hell of a confirmation fight on his replacement-something I am sure the President does not want.
There is certainly more to this story than what has so far been so judiciously leaked to the democrats’ handmaiden. The President is reaping the whirlwind of not having purged the DoJ in 2000. For instance, our gal here in San Diego had been Clinton’s California Campaign Manager. How do you run an organization riddled with political moles? How long would you keep a disloyal subordinate around?
Gonzalez may come off as a lightweight, but at least he isn’t a stonewalling criminal like Janet Reno. This latest is just a little more political chum in the water, since the original shark attack has run out of steam.
Foj 16 weeks the MSM/DNC has used AG to prove the point that the GOP is the party of corruption. Bush should have let him spend time with his family in Feb. This is a major reason his appoval is lower than Jimma’s. The beating we are taking in “The War on Terror” is the other.
When you have a squad leader whose inabilities are getting his men killed you have to replace him. The longer you wait: A. the lower morale goes and B. the more men die needlesly.
Had Gonzo been gone in Feb the GOP and America would be better today!
‘
an exJarehead
Skippy-San makes a good point, and one that has been troubling me since the beginning of the Gonzales take-down. If Bush does back off on support of Gonzales and he resigns, the Democratically controlled Congress will never confirm any new Attorney General the Administration picks. They will just continue with their time-wasting retaliation tactics until after the next Presidential election. And I’m not comfortable not having an Attorney General. Too much creepy stuff going on.
Marianne Matthews
More than just this flap, GW has a very bad habit of keeping people around when they should be gone. Rummy stayed way too long, same for Mr. G. I side with Skippy – there are naked pics of someone locked in Alberto’s safe…
Mark
This guy is not a proponent of “I’d rather go down inflames than look bad’.
To think GW considered him for nomination to the Supreme Court…
re Skippy’s- “Its long past bed time for the guy.”
I agree.
BTW, I’ve heard that said ’bout y’all!
b2
What a bunch of fairweather sailors. Evidently Dubyah grasps a concept that escapes some. Loyalty is a two-way street.
In politics, business AND the military, leadership must cut it’s losses sometimes..A direct frontal assault in the face of overwhelming odds is of no use to anybody in this situation. He (Gonzalez) ought to resign BECAUSE of loyalty…We ain’t talking about the nobility of defending the Alamo here, we’re talking about the mealy-mouthed buffoonery of one lawyer..
Me? Fairweather VFR only? LOfL.
b2
Oh, I admire W’s loyalty culture as a general rule, and he realizes right well that they’re not after Gonzalez so much as a pound of administrative flesh – any pound will do for now, and they’ll be back for more tomorrow.
But comes a time when even a virtue can turn to vice. I heard the Comey interview on the radio yesterday coming in – unfiltered. It was pretty ugly.
But one of the jobs of responsible politicians – in between spasms of partisan jousting – ought to be actual governance. DoJ is too important a place to shelter AGAG – he’s become a liability.
Considering that the DoJ has been a mess since Reno and the Clintons turned it into the enforcement arm of their political mafia, and considering that we’ve lived through six years of obdurance from the holdovers, I don’t see what harm comes from maintaining the status quo, and resisting the temptation to feed the beast, for the next eighteen months.
Wasn’t it Ashcroft who was the devil in disguise? Now it’s Gonzalez. As you said, “… they?
Considering that the DoJ has been a mess since Reno and the Clintons turned it into the enforcement arm of their political mafia, and considering that we’ve lived through six years of obdurance from the holdovers, I don’t see what harm comes from maintaining the status quo, and resisting the temptation to feed the beast, for the next eighteen months.
Wasn’t it Ashcroft who was the devil in disguise? Now it’s Gonzalez. As you said, “… they’re not after Gonzalez so much as a pound of administrative flesh – any pound will do for now, and they’ll be back for more tomorrow.” I see no upside to tossing Gonzalez off the fantail, and quite a considerable downside.
The lawyers over at Powerline have a slightly different take on this. Not sure which is the proper perspective, but it’s worth reading.
They’re smart guys certainly, and Casca has a valid point as well on the wisdom of feeding sharks. But the Powerline guys are pretty much party line guys – they couldn’t even make themselves condemn the Harriet Miers nomination outright.
When it comes right down to it, I’m more of a conservative than a Republican – I think you have to govern, and you’ve got to be ready to throw weak and terminally wounded off the bus.
Gonzales makes a poor witness for himself. 50% of this controversy has come from his poor showings in front of Congress.
Loyalty in the Bush administration runs one way-up. Notice how quickly Gonzales threw his own minion under a bus after he resigned-blaming everything on him?
This whole thing was avoidable had Gonzales handled the situation better.
On the practical side, Bush should bring some different folks into a lot of different positions not directly related to defense & GWOT.
Why?
For the team. For the future. Lex knows and so do I. He shuffled department heads when he was King. So did Skippy. George should too.
Jettison Gonzales..for himself & the Party. In retrospect, we might not be in the mess we are with Congress right now if’n Rummey had left just 3 months earlier. IMO, being blinders-on loyal burns any bridges to the future..politics is a zero-sum game between the two parties but should it be the same for the entity that brung ya- your own party?
Btw- what do y’all think about that troublehooting General Czar or such, he just appointed. I’m sorta scratching my head..I though we ironed out them problems a while back…
b2
“Loyalty in the Bush administration runs one way-up. Notice how quickly Gonzales threw his own minion under a bus after he resigned-blaming everything on him?”
Fire the politically jockying git who created the entirely fabricated controversy by going to the hill and saying what he was specifically told not to say? The correct answer was simple. Even I can remember it. “I’m sorry Senator, but it would be wrong to discuss these personnel matters publicly.” The mistake was letting him last this long. Not to worry though, he’ll be on Hillary’s campaign staff next week.
I thought by definition the President was the War Czar.
What I don’t understand is how a 3 star that is still in uniform will be able to direct 4 stars and 4 star equivelants what to do. Seems at a minimum he’d be better if he were to retire and be nom’ed to a cabinent level position.