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Politics
Topples Attorney General Gonzales |
Posted:
08.29.07
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The government's top law enforcement official, Alberto Gonzales,
resigned after months of investigations into the firing of U.S.
attorneys and the legality of a secret wiretapping program.
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Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the first Hispanic to hold
the post, announced his resignation Monday and President Bush
reluctantly agreed.
"It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable
person like Alberto Gonzales is impeding from doing important
work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political
reasons," the president said at a news conference.
Gonzales' resignation from the top spot at the Justice Department
is effective Sept. 17 at which time he will be replaced temporarily
by Paul Clement, the current solicitor general. The solicitor
general is the person who argues on behalf of the government before
the U.S. Supreme Court.
The president will later appoint a permanent replacement. The
Senate must then approve the choice.
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The role
of the attorney general |
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As attorney general, Gonzales was part of the Cabinet -- the
most senior government officials who advise the president.
As head of the Justice Department, he was charged with enforcing
federal laws dealing with issues such as drug trafficking, corporate
fraud, Internet fraud, child  pornography,
organized crime and more recently, especially since the Sept.
11, 2001 terrorist attacks, prosecuting terrorists.
Some people saw a shift into more proactive anti-terrorism activities
as one of Gonzales' major accomplishments.
"Gonzales had to try to shift the mindset of the government
so that the United States was on the offensive, not falling into
the narrow mindset that this is simply a criminal law enforcement
issue, but turning the Department of Justice into an anti-terrorism
agency, such as you see happening today," Noel Francisco,
who served as White House associate counsel and deputy assistant
attorney general during President Bush's first term, told the
NewsHour.
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A controversial
tenure |
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But even before becoming
attorney general, Gonzales faced criticism for trying to stretch
the law.
In 2002, when he was the White House counsel, he wrote several
memos that seemed to suggest the United States could ignore international
laws preventing the torture.
The documents, made public during the investigations into the
prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, stated that parts
of
the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war were
"obsolete" and some provisions "quaint," Reuters
reported.
Democrats also criticized Gonzales for expanding the powers of
the president through a secret wiretapping program established
in the wake of Sept. 11.
But the issue that led many Republicans in Congress to lose confidence
in him was his handling of the dismissal of eight U.S. attorney
generals prior to the 2006 elections.
When testifying before Congress in April Gonzales insisted that
the dismissals were based on the prosecutors' job performances,
not politics. But testimony from his colleagues suggested otherwise
and when questioned on specifics, Gonzales often answered, "I
don't know" and "I don't recall," leaving many
with the sense that he was being evasive.
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Reaction
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In general, Democrats welcomed
the attorney general's resignation.
"Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job.
He lacked independence, he lacked judgment and he lacked the spine
to say no to [presidential adviser] Karl Rove," said the
Senate majority leader, Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada.
 Republicans,
while not effusive in their defense of Gonzales, emphasized their
belief that he was a victim of partisan politics in the wake of
the Democratic takeover of Congress.
"It is my hope that whomever President Bush selects as the
next attorney general, he or she is not subjected to the same
poisonous partisanship," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky.
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--
Compiled by Annie Schleicher for NewsHour Extra
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