So long, Fredo

September 14, 2007

I’d be remiss if I neglected to mention that Alberto Gonzales, arguably the worst Attorney General in U.S. history, is signing off today after a scandal-plagued three years.

As it turns out, we’re ready to see him go, and Gonzales is ready to walk away.

After nine months of noisy controversy over his troubled tenure, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales is leaving office quietly today with a low-key farewell address to Justice Department employees in Washington.

Gonzales, who has made only three public appearances since announcing his resignation on Aug. 27, is expected to dwell on his record in combating terrorism, child exploitation and other crimes rather than on the divisive issues that forced him from the job.

During a brief news conference yesterday in Des Moines, Gonzales played down those controversies, including the congressional uproar over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year and the Justice Department and congressional investigations into whether he lied in testimony or attempted to influence the testimony of a witness.

“We’re all human and all of us make mistakes, and the thing that’s important is to identify when those mistakes are made, acknowledge the mistakes, correct the mistakes and then you move on,” Gonzales said in answer to a reporter’s question, without going into detail. “So, you know, that’s what I’ve endeavored to do as the attorney general.”

Assuming he doesn’t re-enter the building as a material witness or a criminal suspect at some point in the future, we can only hope that Gonzales stays as far away from the Justice Department as humanly possible.

“This is a quiet ending to a sad chapter at the Department of Justice,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who was the first lawmaker to call for Gonzales’s resignation earlier this year.

That’s true, but his departure is an uplifting coda, isn’t it?

Will he be replaced? I can’t believe the White House will nominate anyone acceptable, and (in a triumph of hope over experience) I don’t think the Congress will confirm anyone who’s an obvious partisan hack.

  • I don’t think the Congress will confirm anyone who’s an obvious partisan hack.

    Gah, let’s hope so.

    Reid’s move to quash the viability of Olson rumors was a good sign.

    I mean, really, they don’t have to let any names they don’t like out of committee, right? If the Dems can keep their spines semi-rigid through the confirmation process, the Justice Dept. should take a turn for the better (though I guess one could argue it has nowhere to go but up.)

  • ““We’re all human and all of us make mistakes, and the thing that’s important is to identify when those mistakes are made, acknowledge the mistakes, correct the mistakes and then you move on,” Gonzales said in answer to a reporter’s question, without going into detail. “So, you know, that’s what I’ve endeavored to do as the attorney general.”

    And when has Gonzo done any of the above things? NEVER!!

  • and the thing that’s important is to identify when those mistakes are made, acknowledge the mistakes, correct the mistakes and then you move on,

    Or in Gonzo’s case, skip steps 1-3 and go to 4 only after months and months of denying that there were any mistakes.

  • If you’re like me, you’ve long ago created a keyboard macro that posts the following text to your comment:

    Good Riddance you Repugnant POS”

    Saves a lot of typing

  • One well-loved IT company, The SCO Group, is going Bankrupt today, rather than appear at their trial next week, and among their creditors, one find “The Honorable Alberto Gonzales”.

    I wonder what service the USAG performed for them ?

  • Tony Snow AND Alberto both left today – NBC had a touching scene of Snow leaving to the applause of a throng of people stnding outside on the steps and in the parking lot. He was all choked up. I was just choking.

    According to Think Progress, Alberto got his party, and the obsequious tribute of some of his employees; reading them made my teeth hurt.

    To both – don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out…

  • Uh, great. Now, when do those 9 attorneys general get their jobs back?

    Hopefully before November 2008.

    Also, “Fredo” is an interesting nickname for Gonzales. Does anyone remember what Fredo’s nickname was? In the original Mario Puzo novels, Fredo wasn’t scrawny, sour, and neurotic-looking like the actor who played him in the movies. In the novel, Fredo’s nickname was a word in Sicilian which, according to Puzo, roughly translated to “ladies man”, but was largely untranslatable and connotated a greedy baby always at its mother’s breast.

    So, the real Fredo was a dandy, very popular with the ladies, and had problems keeping his penis under control. Did Gonzales get the nickname for that reason?

  • Washington Post wrote: “Gonzales, who has made only three public appearances since announcing his resignation on Aug. 27, is expected to dwell on his record in combating terrorism, child exploitation and other crimes rather than on the divisive issues that forced him from the job.”

    Waitaminit: WHAT record of combating terrorism?

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