The resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales offers several fascinating insights into 6+ years of the Bush Administration.
Gonzales had been a long-time aid to President Bush dating back to Bush's days in Texas. His 2.5 year tenure as Attorney General has been marked by controversy from the beginning.
During his confirmation hearings, Senators grilled him on his role in the Bush Administration's tolerance of both torture and humiliating interrogation tactics in Iraq and in our Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Shortly after becoming the country's 80th Attorney General in 2005, news broke of the Administration's policy that allowed warrantless wiretaps of suspected terrorists. Since then, Congress has worked to determine Gonzales's role in this controversial policy.
More recently, Gonzales has been dogged by accusations that he played a major role in the political firings of several U.S. Attorneys.
Many will say his resignation is long overdue. They contend that Gonzales, as both a legal counsel to Bush and as Attorney General, trampled on the concept of Rule of Law inherent in our Constitutional democracy.
Others will say that in a time of the Global War on Terror, Gonzales had the obligation to search for loopholes in American civil liberties as a way to prevent future terrorist attacks on our soil.Regardless, it's been quite a political ride for Gonzales who--as the highest ranking Hispanic in the history of our Federal government--was once on the short list to be on the U.S. Supreme Court.
From CitizenU.org
3 comments:
I definitly feel that the Bush administration is trying to hide something from the general public. I say this because high level personnel don't just quit with such short notice or without a logical reason. If Gonzo was innocent then he should have nothing to be scared about but he and the Bush adminsitration seem to be hiding something and thats why he quit. It just seems like whenever people in the Bush administration come under fire, they leave. Karl Rove is a perfect example. Why would "the brain" leave at such a random time in the year? I know he got supenoed by the Judiciary Committee but honest politicians or at least smart politicians will fight it out. It is obvious that they are keeping the Congress, the American people, and the world ignorant about some of their activities.
Well, so much for the rule of law. Still, this is yet another good example of the balancing act between keeping people's faith in the government and working aggressively to find weaknesses in the system. Unfortunately for Gonzales, seems like he ended up leaning a little too far towards working out the kinks for peoples' liking.
I'm just curious now as to whether the state of the government will improve with the new administration in 09.
I think it's obvious that Gonzales (based on what he showed to the country) was more attached and loyal to Bush and the interests of his administration--including the expansion of executive powers--than the rule of law. His actions were somewhat understandable given his long-standing friendship with the President. Hopefully the next attorney general will spend his/her time handling the issues currently at hand, such as illegal immigration, instead of covering up all the allegedly corrupt and unethical actions of the Bush administration.
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