How Gonzales Failed Us
In the stream of undocumented Mexicans crossing the Rio Grande at the turn of the 20th century, let's focus for a moment on three who become related. They are poor, they have little education, and they don't speak English, but they find work, marry, and settle. Their various children are accepted as citizens of the United States. Among this second generation are Pablo and Maria, who have eight children. One of these children becomes an honors student, enlists for four years in the U.S. Air Force, enters its academy, and in 1982 earns a doctor of law degree at Harvard.
He rises. We know him today as Alberto Gonzales, the attorney general of the United States. With three undocumented immigrants as his grandparents, he is understandably proud of his family and his achievements. It is a story at the heart of America that offers great hope. Bill Clinton made much of being raised in Hope, Ark. Gonzales, preparing to testify before the Senate on April 17 on his murky firing of eight prosecutors, should ponder the name of the town where he was raised: Humble.
I understand why he should feel like giving humble thanks every day to President Bush. As governor of Texas, Bush appointed him general counsel, then secretary of state for Texas, then a justice of the Texas Supreme Court in 1999, White House counsel, and finally attorney general. This is where being humbly grateful should have stopped. It was all very well to get George W. off jury duty in a 1996 drunk-driving case (for fear it would be revealed the governor had failed to disclose his own 1976 misdemeanor drunk-driving conviction). It is another to go along with every political requirement of the president. Every. Domestic wiretapping? Sure. Congressional demands to see Dick Cheney's Energy Force documents? Forget it. Rendition of prisoners to countries allowing torture? Go ahead. Awkward Geneva Conventions? "Obsolete." Habeas corpus? Not a guaranteed right under the Constitution-watch me split hairs.
Whose lawyer? The attorney general's position is the trickiest in the cabinet. He is appointed by the president and lives at the president's favor. But he is also the people's lawyer. As head of the Justice Department, he has to ensure that justice is done and seen to be done. He has to reject every political attempt to interfere with enforcement of the law. Prosecutors can never, ever be given the slightest cause to think they will win political favor by pursuing or dropping a case.
That is the nub of the arguments about the purge of the eight U.S. attorneys. Too much fuss has been raised on the left that President Bush should dare to fire attorneys. He is entirely within his rights, indeed his duties. President Clinton fired all 93 attorneys on coming to office. An administration is entitled to have attorneys who will follow its general public policy. Think of the struggle for civil rights and how many attorneys dragged their feet in the enforcement of voting, schooling, and due process supposedly guaranteed by the Constitution and buttressed by legislation. It was entirely legitimate, indeed vital to the health of the country, to have attorneys who would not frustrate the will of the people.
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