|
Attorney General Gonzales
steps down
David Morgan
Reuters
Monday Aug 27, 2007
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned on Monday under pressure
after months of controversy and political turmoil that President
George W. Bush angrily blamed on his administration's critics
in Congress.
Bush, who doggedly supported Gonzales during repeated confrontations
with the Democratic-controlled Congress, said Gonzales had endured
"months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction
at the Justice Department."
"It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable
person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work
because his good name was dragged through the mud for political
reasons," Bush said before leaving Texas for Republican fund-raisers
in New Mexico and Washington.
Gonzales announced at the Justice Department that his resignation
would take effect on September 17. He refused to take questions
from reporters and gave no reason for his sudden decision to depart
after months of controversy.
(Article continues below)
"I have lived the American dream," said Gonzales, a
son of migrant workers who began working for Bush when the president
was still the governor of Texas.
"Even my worst days as attorney general have been better
than my father's best days," he said.
A senior administration official said the president had not decided
on a new nominee.
U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement will serve as acting attorney
general, amid speculation that Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff could be a candidate for a permanent replacement.
A 52-year-old Bush loyalist, Gonzales was at the center of a
political firestorm over the sacking of federal prosecutors last
year, which critics in Congress said were politically motivated.
He faced a possible perjury investigation for his testimony before
Congress.
Gonzales spoke to Bush by telephone on Friday and then visited
him on Sunday at his Crawford ranch, where formally submitted
his letter of resignation.
"I have reluctantly accepted his resignation with great
appreciation for the service that he has provided for our country,"
Bush said.
DREW FIRE ON MANY ISSUES
Current and former administration officials had said the department's
integrity had been damaged under Gonzales with controversy over
the firing of the prosecutors, his support for Bush's warrantless
domestic spying program adopted after the September 11 attacks
and other issues.
Gonzales is the latest member of Bush's inner circle to leave
the White House as the administration heads toward the final year
of its two-term reign. Top Bush adviser Karl Rove departed last
week, following former communications director Dan Bartlett earlier
this year.
Reaction from Democrats was swift.
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, blamed Gonzales and Bush for "a severe crisis
of leadership" at the Justice Department.
"I hope the attorney general's decision will be a step toward
getting to the truth about the level of political influence this
White House wields over the Department of Justice and toward reconstituting
its leadership," he said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said: "This
resignation is not the end of the story. Congress must get to
the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead,
into the White House."
Like Bush, other Republicans sought to cast Gonzales as a victim
of the partisan politics of Democrats who took control of Congress
in January. "It is my hope that whomever President Bush selects
as the next attorney general, he or she is not subjected to the
same poisonous partisanship," said Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Gonzales worked for Bush when he was governor of Texas in the
1990s. He served as White House lawyer in Bush's first term as
president before becoming the first Hispanic attorney general
in February 2005.
Before becoming the chief U.S. law enforcement official, Gonzales
drew fire from critics of U.S. interrogation policy for writing
in January 2002 that parts of the Geneva Convention on the treatment
of prisoners of war were "obsolete" and some provisions
"quaint."
Officials complained that employee morale at the Justice Department
had been hurt during Gonzales' tenure and that attorney general's
relations with the Democrats and some Republicans in Congress
had deteriorated beyond repair.
While acknowledging mistakes in the handling of the dismissals,
Gonzales had denied the firings were politically motivated to
influence federal probes involving Democratic or Republican lawmakers.
(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles, James Vicini, Tabassum
Zakaria and Andy Sullivan in Washington and Jeremy Pelofsky in
Crawford, Texas)
|
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
|
|
