In general, there’s nothing amusing about someone struggling to find a job. There are exceptions.
Alberto R. Gonzales, like many others recently unemployed, has discovered how difficult it can be to find a new job. Mr. Gonzales, the former attorney general, who was forced to resign last year, has been unable to interest law firms in adding his name to their roster, Washington lawyers and his associates said in recent interviews.
He has, through friends, put out inquiries, they said, and has not found any takers. What makes Mr. Gonzales’s case extraordinary is that former attorneys general, the government’s chief lawyer, are typically highly sought.
Well, sure they’re “typically” sought after. Most law firms would love to have a former Attorney General on their roster. When a firm is approaching a potential client, and anxious to emphasize the prestige and influence of the firm, a partner takes pride in saying, “Yes, we even have a former Attorney General on staff.” When that AG was rumored to have been considered for the Supreme Court, the cachet is even more impressive still.
But that’s the problem for ol’ Fredo. Everyone knows him, everyone saw his performance as arguably the worst Attorney General in history, and everyone knows the disdain with which he regards the rule of law. He’s not the guy you hire; he’s the guy whose phone messages you ignore.
I suspect there might be some temptation to pick him up, if a firm were anxious to curry favor with the Bush administration, but these same firms know that Bush will be out of the White House in nine months — and a McCain administration wouldn’t care.
Word has it that Gonzales attributes his trouble to a “tough job market.” The economy’s bad, but for the man who was, up until recently, the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer, it’s not supposed to be this bad.
Despite those credentials, he left office last August with a frayed reputation over his role in the dismissal of several federal prosecutors and the truthfulness of his testimony about a secret eavesdropping program. He has had no full-time job since his resignation, and his principal income has come from giving a handful of talks at colleges and before private business groups.
“Maybe the passage of time will provide some opportunity for him,” said one Washington lawyer who was aware of an inquiry to his firm from a Gonzales associate. “I wouldn’t say ‘rebuffed,’ ” said the lawyer, who asked his name not be used because the situation being described was uncomfortable for Mr. Gonzales. “I would say ‘not taken up.’ ”
The greatest impediment to Mr. Gonzales’s being offered the kind of high-salary job being snagged these days by lesser Justice Department officials, many lawyers agree, is his performance during his last few months in office. In that period, he was openly criticized by lawmakers for being untruthful in his sworn testimony. His conduct is being investigated by the Office of the Inspector General of the Justice Department, which could recommend actions from exonerating him to recommending criminal charges. Friends set up a fund to help pay his legal bills.
And firms are reluctant to give this guy a paying gig? I can’t imagine why.