Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales shelved his Spring Break family vacation plans. A trip to Florida, Padre Island, or Cancun? Fuggedaboutit!

The country’s top prosecutor has a lot of prep work ahead before he testifies at Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about his role in the U.S. Attorney firings scandal.  The political embroglio has all the makings of a sordid TV mini-series — one that should likely play out over a network’s whole season. The West Wing had nothing on the dysfunctional state of affairs in the Justice Department and the White House.

The View From Congress: Gonzales’ Credibility Is Sorely Lacking

Gonzales will certainly have a lot of explaining to do at the upcomign Senate hearing.  His presence at an hour-long meeting to discuss U.S. Attorney appointments on November 27, 2006 was documented in an e-mail from Kyle Sampson, his former Chief of Staff.  The meeting was with Gonzales’ top aides in the Attorney General’s own conference room — how could his memory fail him about the basics of this meeting?

Then there is Gonzales’ March 13th statement when, he was caught lying to reporters about his knowledge and involvement in firing eight U.S. Attorneys, telling them: “I never saw documents. We never had a discussion about where things stood” about terminating U.S. Attorneys.

His former Chief of Staff says that Gonzales’ memory is inaccurate, that he was highly involved in the decision-making process (along with the White House) in firing eight career prosecutors, many of whom were investigating high-profile political corruption cases.

The resected U.K. weekly, The Economist, takes a global view of how political events impact the world, its people, and companies.

That is why it’s most recent issue (Inset: a picture from the cover) makes for a good read.

The magazine concludes that Gonzales has long overstayed his stay in the Bush administration: “Mr Gonzales is a worthy target for political skirmishers: had he an ounce of integrity, he would have resigned long ago for his role in commissioning a memorandum that amounted to a legal defence of torture. And the treatment of the prosecutors is certainly worth fighting over.”

Instead of lashing simply highlighting how dysfunctional the White House and Justice Department have been in the U.S. Attorneys firings scandal, they analyze the impact it’s had upon other people, countries and economies around the world. The editors note that:

“the current civil war in Washington has the making of a tragedy—both for America and for millions of people around the globe. For example, the Doha trade round, with which so many Democrats are keen to play politics, could lift millions of the world’s most wretched inhabitants out of poverty. At home, there is a huge amount president and Congress could and should collaborate on, from immigration reform to the care of the elderly”

America’s supporters in the U.K. are quite candid in their description of contempt for the U.S. Attorney. Last week, the conservative National Review issued a call for Gonzales to resign.

With Gonzales’ testimony before congress scheduled for April 17th, it appears that calls for his resignation from GOP and Democrats in office will only increase.

In the meantime voters, Congress, and America’s allies are caught up in a tidal wave of distrust in the federal government’s ability to hold itself accountable.