A General Rebellion
Alberto Gonzales has big troubles, but it isn't the current flap that has made him such a controversial figure
Similarly, Gonzales allowed Flanigan and Addington to limit Bush's options on how the suspects ought to be prosecuted, and instead all three of them eventually pushed through the military commission idea, knowledgeable sources say.
Gonzales also put his signature on a draft memorandum written by Flanigan, with Addington's input, that allowed the administration to bypass the Geneva Conventions in the interrogation and treatment of terrorism suspects. Gonzales and Addington also were the only two officials in the White House, these sources say, who proffered legal advice on the NSA's controversial warrantless surveillance program.
Bush named Gonzales his attorney general in 2004. But Gonzales's lack of experience in running a huge department, his outsider status, his controversial past, and his lack of an independent political base on Capitol Hill have all helped transform the U.S. attorney crisis into a perfect storm.
In one respect, says Gonzales's old colleague Cunningham, the attorney general deserves some sympathy. "I think the career bureaucracy at Justice, State, and CIA are almost unmanageable," says Cunningham. "Any attempts to get them to carry out what the elected political leadership wants is seen as an unwarranted influence of politics."
In this case, that suspicion was exacerbated by the view among many career prosecutors that Gonzales is too close to Bush. A closeness, one former justice official says, that is often reflected in Gonzales's unconscious rhetoric, how he frequently invokes the president first when chatting with justice colleagues, as in "this president, the Department of Justice, and the country expect no less from us," which to many became indicative of where the attorney general's primary loyalties lie.
Given the high price of loyalty in Washington, it's perhaps not surprising that Gonzales has recently been mulling over whether to stay or go.
"I think that every cabinet official has to ask themselves—every day—'Is it still appropriate for me to lead a cabinet department?'" Gonzales mused in a recent interview with NBC News. "It's something that I've been asking myself more lately than perhaps others." But increasingly, others are asking, too.
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