Impeach Gonzalez
Today is Monday, 26 March 2007.
The Counsel to the President is often called “the President’s lawyer”.
This is valid, if understood to mean “lawyer to the institution of the office of President”. The Counsel is not, and must not be, lawyer for the President in the sense of the lawyer I hired to prepare my will. In his behaviour as Counsel and as Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez has betrayed his oaths of office. In practice, Gonzalez’s loyalty is to Bush as private citizen Bush, and not to the President as an elected employee of the people of the United States.
(This is hardly surprising. During Bush’s first term as governor of Texas, he was called to jury service. This would have entailed the embarrassing public disclosure that Bush had been three times arrested: for public intoxication and vandalism, for public intoxication and grand larceny, and for drunk driving. This might have put an end to his political ambitions. It was Gonzalez who convinced a judge that Bush should be coddled with special treatment, and exempted from the jury service which is a responsibility of all citizens.)
Of course, the selection of United States attorneys will almost always degenerate into a political process, in the sense of a partisan patronage process. Once US attorneys are installed, however, they must completely insulate themselves from partisan considerations and influence, and serve only the People of the United States through obedience to the rule of law. The Attorney General must likewise ensure that the attorneys are insulated.
Gonzalez should therefore be impeached, tried, convicted, and removed. Firing or resignation are too good for him, and for Bush: the full range of the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by Gonzalez at the behest of his master, Bush, must be publicly, thoroughly, and relentlessly exposed and punished.
Republicans crow that the GOP is the party of “law and order”. It's long past time for them to walk the walk.
The Counsel to the President is often called “the President’s lawyer”.
This is valid, if understood to mean “lawyer to the institution of the office of President”. The Counsel is not, and must not be, lawyer for the President in the sense of the lawyer I hired to prepare my will. In his behaviour as Counsel and as Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez has betrayed his oaths of office. In practice, Gonzalez’s loyalty is to Bush as private citizen Bush, and not to the President as an elected employee of the people of the United States.
(This is hardly surprising. During Bush’s first term as governor of Texas, he was called to jury service. This would have entailed the embarrassing public disclosure that Bush had been three times arrested: for public intoxication and vandalism, for public intoxication and grand larceny, and for drunk driving. This might have put an end to his political ambitions. It was Gonzalez who convinced a judge that Bush should be coddled with special treatment, and exempted from the jury service which is a responsibility of all citizens.)
Of course, the selection of United States attorneys will almost always degenerate into a political process, in the sense of a partisan patronage process. Once US attorneys are installed, however, they must completely insulate themselves from partisan considerations and influence, and serve only the People of the United States through obedience to the rule of law. The Attorney General must likewise ensure that the attorneys are insulated.
Gonzalez should therefore be impeached, tried, convicted, and removed. Firing or resignation are too good for him, and for Bush: the full range of the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by Gonzalez at the behest of his master, Bush, must be publicly, thoroughly, and relentlessly exposed and punished.
Republicans crow that the GOP is the party of “law and order”. It's long past time for them to walk the walk.
posted by HH at 8:17 AM
2 Comments:
I understand your sentiment, but can the Attorney General actually be impeached?
Let them walk the perp walk.
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