Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

A new poll by the Washington Post and ABC News lends strength to what this blog has observed over the past month: that most people believe the controversial U.S. Attorney firings were not based upon performance related termnations, but on political motivations.

The poll comes just one day after Gonzales issued 25-pages of prepared testimony for his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow. In that testimony, and in an Op-Ed column that appeared in the Washington Post yesterday, he defened of his conduct in the scandal, and a litany of other accomplishments he’s claiming while on the job.

The WaPo-ABC News poll data show that 67% of a national sample of 1,141 people believe the firings occured for political reasons.

But appears more significant is that a majority of people believe what conservatives, Democrats, and career prosecutors have been saying all along — that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not handled his firing of eight federal prosecutors properly.

Remember, this view is shared by a wide variety of respected conservative observers. The Economist, National Review, and American Enterprise Institute analyst Norman Ornstein have all criticized Gonzales for failing to deal with the job terminations properly.

It goes without saying that Democrats have taken Gonzales to task since news of the Attorney-gate scandal broke.

The criticism that appears to carry the most insight comes from former Acting U.S. Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General Harold Christensen who served under the Reagan and Bush, Sr. adminsitrations. He’s been refreshingly frank, saying that Gonzales “just doesn’t get it. His loyalty to the President has gotten in the way of his loyalty to the [DOJ and to justice.”

Alberto Gonzales is getting criticism from a former senior Justice Department official under Ronald Reagan, Utah trial and appeals lawyer Harold Christensen.

In 1988 Christensen served as Acting U.S. Attorney General for several months after Edwina Meese resigned from the DOJ’s top position, until Richard ‘Dick’ Thornburgh was appointed to the new role.

Christensen’s primary role was  as Deputy Attorney General under Meese and Thornburgh.  He is an experienced litigator.

In an interview with the Salt Lake City Tribune, Christensen suggested that Gonzales fails to appreciate that a U.S. Attorney must remain independent of political winds that can shift blow down from the White House.  Gonzales’ loyalty to President Bush may have clouded his professional judgment:

The attorney general must not be tethered to the political skirts of the White House, Christensen said…”[Alberto Gonzales] doesn’t get it. His loyalty to the president has gotten in the way of his loyalty to the department and to justice.”

A U.S. Attorney General who sorely lacks a sense of loyalty to the administration of justice is no longer able to serve the country’s legal needs.