September 2007: Bye, bye Gonzo

“Every clique is a refuge for incompetence. It fosters corruption and disloyalty; it begets cowardice, and consequently is a burden upon and a drawback to the progress of the country. Its instincts and actions are that of the pack” – Madame Chiang Kai-Shek”

The website of the US Department of Justice states that “…the Attorney General represents the United States in legal matters generally and gives advice and opinions to the President and to the heads of the executive departments of the Government when so requested”. What it doesn’t say, but should, is that the chief law enforcement officer of the United States should have the requisite prosecutorial qualifications and experience, be endowed with strong and effective leadership skills, be impartial and non biased in enforcing the law, uphold the Constitution and most importantly be competent. Unfortunately, the now former Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzales, failed the test in the vast majority of these qualifications. Just so you don’t think that I am picking on Gonzo, as he has become affectionately known in the U.S. media, I will be the first to admit that Gonzales is only one of many former Attorneys General who have either been handed this plum job through nepotism (Robert F Kennedy/Presidency of JFK) or been convicted of corruption and political cover up while in office (John Mitchell/Presidency of Richard Nixon); only days after his departure, Gonzales is being hailed as one of America’s worst Attorney Generals and very likely its most partisan.

Leaving the incompetence and the partisanship to one side, perhaps the greatest accusation to be leveled at Gonzales is that, while ostensibly the Attorney General of the United States, he was in fact a Bush puppet, a private lawyer pulling the levers of powers as the chief law enforcement officer in the land at the behest of President Bush. Since Gonzales was sworn in as AG in January 2005 there has been a catalogue of events that have proven this to be the case, not least the Machiavellian way that Gonzales authorized the firing of 8 U.S. Attorneys (all Democrats) for supposedly poor job performance at the end of 2006. In the last 6 months it has transpired that all 8 were in fact among the best performing U.S. Attorneys in the country, spurring the Congress into a flurry of investigation and subpoena issuing not seen since the impeachment hearings of Bill Clinton or Richard Nixon. Throughout the entire investigative process, during which Gonzales testified under oath before various Congressional committees, he repeatedly lied about his involvement in various Bush sponsored initiatives; from illegal wiretapping, to the firing of U.S. attorneys for blatantly partisan reasons to usurption of the so called Patriot Act to undermine the civil liberties of Americans.

However, when you analyze the Gonzales biography, you encounter the same recurring themes of cronyism and corruption that have been synonymous with Bush insiders like Karl Rove and Harriet Miers. Bush is notorious for protecting his inside “family” and has consistently rewarded old colleagues and buddies from his years as Governor of Texas with plum appointments within the government. What seems lost on the President however is the fact that most of his buddies have been conspicuously under-qualified and in some cases; downright incompetent, to do the job. Enter Alberto Gonzales. It has been known for years that Bush refers to his friend Gonzales as “Fredo”, leaving many commentators unable to resist making the comparison between this modern day gangster George Bush and his weak yet loyal underling, Alberto Gonzales, and the famous Godfather relationship between Michael Corleone and his weak and easy going younger brother Fredo.

At a time when the Bush administration can’t take any more political heat, whether it is from Democrats, the media or in excess of 70% of the American population, George Bush did what Michael Corleone did; he consigned his own Fredo to the deep, dark waters of political oblivion. Depending on what political pundit you talk to you will hear phrases like “…he walked the plank for George Bush”, “…Gonzales resigned before he was fired”, “…he was thrown under the bus by President Bush”, however one thing is for sure, Gonzales was sacrificed to save George Bush further public humiliation. Bush carried out a controlled explosion on Alberto Gonzales before his own Fredo timed out, self detonated and brought the whole White House down with him.