Ding Dong: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned (Washington Post). Gonzales informed President Bush Friday, but as late as Sunday Administration spokespeople inexplicably indicated that rumors of Gonzales' imminent resignation were not true (New York Times).
The announcement comes less than two weeks after the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department's inspector general to to expand the perjury investigation against Gonzales to include any violations of his duty as Attorney General (BN-Politics).
Gonzales became the ninth (maybe the tenth, I've lost count) high-level Justice Department official to resign since Congress began investigating the U.S. Attorney firings earlier this year. Over the last two weeks, Wan Kim (DoJ's Civil Rights Division chief) and Bradley Schlozman also announced their resignations. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty announced his in May.
Former DoJ staffer Monica Goodling, who resigned several months ago, had testified to Congress that Gonzales and McNulty essentially lied to Congress when making prior statements.
Perhaps inadvertently, Schlozman admitted that political agendas had, at times, mattered in his staff-hiring decisions: he also admitted to pushing a voter-fraud investigation before a major election, in apparent violation of the Justice Department's own written policies (BN-Politics-1 and BN-Politics-2). Schlozman edited his highly questionable congressional testimony in June.
For more detailed background, see BN-Politics' Justice Dept. section.
President Bush wants to appoint Gonzales' replacement soon. Senator Charles Schumer said that Democrats "will not obstruct or impede a nominee who we are confident will put the rule of law above political considerations." (New York Times).
Therein lies the problem: Bush appointed Gonzales nder whom the Justice Department became so apparently politicized. Is the president capable of handing such a job to a person who puts partisan agendas aside for the nation's sake?
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