About damn time. Incompetent U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez (AGAG) announced today that he's resigning effecting 17 September. His resignation statement said nothing at all about why he's leaving and did not attempt to address any of the concerns that have forced him out of office. This is almost certainly for the best. Bloomberg has a decent recap of Gonzalez' recent missteps and the controversy surrounding his "performance" of his job ("malfeasance" is a better word).
This is unquestionably a good thing for the country. Perhaps the Justice Department can get back to, you know, justice, instead of playing politics and blocking.
2 comments:
I was surprised when I found out that Gonzales was resigning. I didn't think it would happen, what with him having the utmost confidence of the president. Maybe he wanted to spend more time with his family?
So I have two questions now. First, is Congress still going to attempt to get to the bottom of all the shenanigans in the Justice Department during his tenure? And second, who will replace Gonzales? I understand Chertoff is at the forefront of Bush's choices, but who will Congress approve?
Most pundits seem to think Chertoff is likely to get the nod. While I don't think his nomination hearings would be much fun, based on what Sen. Leahy said this afternoon on NPR (and what he didn't say) he'd probably get approved.
I'm not so sure about Ted Olsen. He might have a little more trouble since he'd get tagged as another Gonzalez--i.e. a political apparatchik--pretty quickly. But that's what Bush likes is politicos with no experience. Olsen was at least Solicitor General for a time so he knows the DoJ well enough and has proven a competent administrator; thus the "political hack" brush might not paint him very well. We'll see.
I can't imagine the Senate deciding, however, that now that AGAG is gone they don't need to follow up on the political firings of prosecutors and other issues. I'm sure they'll continue to press on that.
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