By James Oliphant
You don’t have Alberto Gonzales to kick around anymore.
With apologies to Raymond Chandler, it seems like the embattled attorney general has had one very long goodbye. Calls for his head were coming as early as last spring and he finally resigned last month. But today is the day that Gonzales walks through the cavernous hallways of Main Justice for the final time, says his goodbyes, and turns in his keycard. (Presumably he won’t have an exit interview, but hopefully someone’s told him about COBRA.)
It appears it’s left the AG feeling a bit wistful. His last public speech came this morning at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington. Gonzales noted that his career in public service began as an Air Force cadet 34 years ago. “I'm proud to bring my time in public life back to where it began—ending it with you, my fellow airmen,” he said.
He spoke at length about his tenure as the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general. “Our ancestors came from Mexico and other countries to find a better life in America, and in turn they enriched this country. Their pride, honor, dignity and perseverance helped create a nation in which one of their sons could rise to the office I've been honored to hold,” he told the gathering. “It wasn’t that long ago in our country when having a Hispanic at the highest levels of government was unthinkable, no matter how hard he worked.”
Gonzales never directly addressed the controversies that drove him to resign his office, except perhaps when he noted that the Constitution was strong enough “to withstand petty squabbles and politics.”
Finishing up, he told the crowd, “I am the son of a Mexican cotton picker and a construction worker who never finished grade school, and I am the attorney general of the United States. If anyone ever tries to tell you the American dream doesn't exist, or that you can't achieve it, I hope you'll set them straight.”
Gonzales is expected to deliver farewell remarks to Justice Department employees at a ceremony this afternoon at its Constitution Avenue headquarters. Upon his departure, Solicitor General Paul Clement will run the beleaguered agency while the White House continues its search for Gonzales’s successor.
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Comments
Good riddance!!!
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | September 14, 2007 4:32 PM
Good-bye and good riddance. Your Medal of Freedom is in the mail.
Posted by: Dave | September 14, 2007 4:34 PM
Rumor has it he is openning a law firm / pr firm with his new partner... Baghdad Bob.
Posted by: nisleib | September 14, 2007 4:48 PM
Heckuva job Al!
Posted by: Marko | September 14, 2007 5:20 PM
GOP=out of work
Another achievement by the worthless, do nothing Loony Left.
Amazing how the GOP bolts under this worthless pressure.
Posted by: gus | September 14, 2007 5:27 PM
Ah Alberto we will miss you too and your inspiring work on behalf of the children. I love to hear about your life story.
Don't forget to leave your contact info, OK. Chairman Leahy may wish to write...
Posted by: Matt | September 14, 2007 5:46 PM
This Just In!
Exclusive video of former AG AG getting 'kicked around'!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XvydYaVuSc
Posted by: C.Morris | September 14, 2007 6:45 PM
``Over the past two and a half years, I have seen tyranny, dishonesty, corruption and depravity of types I never thought possible,'' Gonzales said in prepared remarks "That's the way we run this department, and we're just warming up" (OK, I added the 2nd 1/2 of the quote to his resignation speech, but it seemed like he was bragging)
Posted by: Big Tom from chico | September 14, 2007 7:56 PM
Sorry to see him leave. It was handy to have this dim witted Bushie to kick around. He could be counted on to demonstrate a really low level of awareness and for some stupid answers harming the Bush administration.
Posted by: c. perry | September 14, 2007 9:30 PM
This international criminal
(who should be, in fact,
an unlicensed attorney)
departs Washington via
a most-expensive Air Force
jet! And, take note that
he has jetison the weekend
prior to CONSTITUTION DAY!!
He shall be back to face
the rule of law, and true
justice!!!
Posted by: ABE | September 15, 2007 12:52 AM
Karl Rove "The Architect"
Gonzales "The Author of Torture Policy"
I'm so glad the Bush Administration is "restoring dignity to the White House".
Posted by: Mrs. Jesus | September 15, 2007 1:53 AM
I will sorely miss Gonzales. He has done so much to fuel my hatred for White House policies, I don't know who could replace him.
Posted by: Giraffe | September 15, 2007 6:21 AM
You know Alberto isn't just packing up his bags and heading for the unemployment line. I'm sure he'll be well taken care of through war machinery companies which we all pay for through taxes. Bye for now, AL
Posted by: Giraffe | September 15, 2007 6:36 AM
So nice to see the left and the Democrats (one and the same) standing up for
a high achieving Hispanic. We know now what you really are so just can the
sympathetic rhetoric for minorities in the future, okay?
Posted by: Jericho | September 15, 2007 10:33 AM
Jericho, it's fact that liberals hate minorities who are Republican and/or conservative. You see those minorities are seen as a threat to the liberal establishment, so they seek to destroy them in anyway possible. For the liberals, it's best to keep the minorities right where they want to keep them: wards of the liberal establishment.
Posted by: John D | September 15, 2007 10:47 AM
Jericho,
What does Gonzo's ethnicity have to do with his job performance?
Al was a political shill for Dubya pure, plain and simple.
It's all about the content of his character (or lack thereof).
Posted by: Doug Zook | September 15, 2007 11:35 AM
Alberto Gonzales is far more qualified a former Texas Supreme Court Justice,Texas Secretary of State than the pond scum people like Senator Leaky Leahy, Chuckie Schemer Schumer and Dickie Durbin, John Conyers who made fools of themselves making him look bad. These libs are anti-Hispanic to the core and threatened by his Catholic roots the baby killers who support abortion.
You did a great job AG have a great future and forget these dirtbag leftis who insult you. Jerry White, Springfield, IL
Posted by: Jerry White | September 15, 2007 5:04 PM
Hey Alberto;
Is this torture?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG5Qk-jB0D4&mode=related&search=
Posted by: TheReamer | September 15, 2007 9:09 PM
What did AG do wrong again?
Oh yeah, he's a Republican.
Go ahead and respond with garden variety left wing folklore.
Posted by: JD | September 16, 2007 7:53 PM
Gonzalez should be arrested and charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. There is no doubt that this man knowingly and deliberately lied under oath on several occasions.
Posted by: Doug R. | September 17, 2007 10:17 AM
Is this the kind of "left wing folklore" you were looking for JD?
From uber-leftist (sarcasm) Bob Novak:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082901927.html
Small Shoes at Justice
By Robert D. Novak
Thursday, August 30, 2007;
...President Bush just went too far in picking a friend who was loyal but also incompetent (a complaint never lodged against Bobby Kennedy). All of Gonzales's senior political positions in Texas -- secretary of state, governor's counsel and Supreme Court justice -- came thanks to Bush's patronage. When he became president, Bush was less interested in quality than loyalty as he brought Texas aides to Washington.
I first met Gonzales in 2001 when, along with other conservative journalists, I went to the White House for a background briefing by presidential counsel Gonzales on the new president's judicial nominations. I was stunned by the incoherence of the briefer. When I checked with several Republican senators, I received the same verdict. Their judgment was that Gonzales was not qualified to hold a senior governmental position.
Gonzales's handling of the crisis over the firing of U.S. attorneys set new standards for incompetence. In the midst of the furor, he agreed to address the National Press Club on May 15 (insisting on breakfast instead of the usual lunch). It was by chance the 44th anniversary of this column, and I concluded that in all those years I had never seen anything like it.
Gonzales arrived in time for the speech but did not make the customary greeting to the other head-table guests. With the capital poised for something about the U.S. attorneys, he delivered an irrelevant address prepared by the Justice bureaucracy. During the question-and-answer period, however, Gonzales repeatedly blamed the problems on Paul McNulty, who had resigned that day as his deputy.
Leaving does not mean Gonzales is safe from the Senate's Democratic sharks, led by Patrick Leahy and Charles Schumer, and contempt-of-Congress charges. But the president's concern now is getting a new attorney general past the Senate Judiciary Committee. Everybody on the short list can count on trouble from Leahy and Schumer. It is questionable whether any of them would undergo that harrowing experience to serve for 16 months in a lame-duck administration.
In Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, former Republican Justice Department officials said the new attorney general must protect presidential prerogatives against congressional encroachment. That is correct, but George W. Bush can blame himself and Alberto Gonzales for the danger.
Posted by: Distrust and Verify | September 17, 2007 11:03 AM