Times Editorial : It’s time to go
Posted on Friday, April 27, 2007
Every time President Bush tells us that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the top law enforcement official in the United States, is a decent human being and an honorable public servant, we want to believe him.
Like most Americans, it’s impossible to have first-hand knowledge of all the twists and turns that have left the president’s old friend struggling to save his job. Like most things it comes down to trust. Do we believe the president when he tells us the attorney general can continue performing his duties in an effective manner despite calls for his resignation from every direction ?
America’s reply has become a resounding “ No ! ” Two-thirds of the country is of the opinion that political scheming is squarely behind the firing of eight U. S. attorneys last December. And it’s not just Senate Democrats leading the charge against Gonzales; Republicans are just as baffled, and disappointed, that the attorney general let things get so out of hand. Although his supporters spun last Thursday’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee as an opportunity for Gonzales to right his sinking ship, he managed to make the situation worse. For one thing, the attorney general cited his own faulty memory a total of 71 times.
Aside from committee members of both parties suggesting he resign, Gonzales informed listeners that he did not “ ask for a resignation of any individual in order to interfere with or influence a particular prosecution for partisan political gain. ”
Certainly one would hope that to be the case. And yet if politics wasn’t at the heart of the Justice Department’s decision, then what was ? Critics have spent months harping about the fact that each of the fired prosecutors had outstanding records. And yes, it’s true that as political appointees these individuals serve at the pleasure of the president, which means that matters of employment are entirely at the discretion of the commander in chief.
But what irks so many people across the political spectrum is this: If the president of the United States wanted to replace these fine attorneys, then why didn’t he do it at the end of his first term, which is standard practice among administrations ? Counter that with the Justice Department’s announcement last December that the services of eight of its best attorneys were no longer needed. No doubt this came as a surprise to these prosecutors, all but one of whom received positive job reviews before being terminated.
In retrospect, the Justice Department did a lousy job of firing eight people who probably didn’t deserve to get fired in the first place. It was inevitable that people were going to raise eyebrows about this, something the Justice Department didn’t fully realize before it took this course of action.
Or maybe it wasn’t inevitable. Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor deserves credit for raising a fuss about the firings long before it was on most radar screens. Not long after he began complaining about the Justice Department’s decision to replace Bud Cummins with a former aide of presidential advisor Karl Rove, Americans learned of a recent change in the law (buried within the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act ) allowing the Justice Department to fill vacancies for indefinite periods without going through the usual nominating process.
It’s been tough going for Gonzales ever since.
On Wednesday the embattled attorney general met with Pryor in the hopes of soothing one of his earliest critics. Pryor came away from the meeting unconvinced. “ He didn’t apologize for anything, and whatever he said didn’t change my mind, ” Pryor informed the press afterward. “ I reiterated with the attorney general face to face that I felt like he should resign. ”
And he should, too. So long as Gonzales remains attorney general, he will be a distraction from the task of enforcing the laws of the land. He owes it to his boss to do the honorable thing and put an end to this fiasco. And if he won’t, the president owes it to the American people to take action.
At least resigning would be a way for Gonzales to finally acknowledge that he made a serious mistake by dismissing eight employees who didn’t deserve what they got — something he has yet to do.
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