Adios Alberto
May 21, 2007, 9:15 am
Posted by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels
Alberto Gonzalez is holding on for what seems an embarrassingly long time. Among many possible reasons: Is a replacement hard to find? Suggestions for the president from CWL bloggers (and be realistic).
Assuming they’d be interested, and that Bush wouldn’t cross party lines in picking a new AG, here’s two that I think would be able to quickly re-establish the DOJ’s credibility and professionalism in the year and a half left in the Bush Administration:
1. Lee Hamilton– widely-respected former congressman and vice-chair of the 9/11 Commission.
2. William Cohen– former senator from Maine and Sec’y of Defense (chosen across party lines) during Clinton’s second term.
NPR did a piece on this hanging on sometime last week, I think. The main reason for his refusal to step down is, they think, loyalty to G. Bush. The last thing in the world the Pres. wants right now is a big fight over confirmation of a new AG, because it will raise all sorts of embarrassing questions about exactly what the Justice Department has been up to in some of its more controversial moves.
Still, my guess is that he will go.
Very misleading title. My hopes were up. Better “ADIOS ALBERTO?”
I think Bush truly fears the bruising confirmation process for a new nominee, especially of a a “Bushie.’
Bill Collier’s nominees might not be as bruising and would be excellent. I thought of George Mitchell also.
It’s clear that a new leader who will affirm the integrity needed for this job is essential above all else.
Though I has some professional policy quarrels with the US Attorney office in New York when I was working, I alwys had the deepest respec tfor their prosecutorial integrity -and that is truly vital for this country..
Some less distinguished, but confirmable, names have been mentioned: for example Senator Orin Hatch (R.-UT).
One of the underlying, but sad, questions here: Is the administration interested in integrity? Or is it fixed on its own agenda that seems to float beyond the reach of the law? This is an issue not only in the Justice Department, but in the FDA, OSHA, and other regulatory bodies.
Fredo’s Revenge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtf_Gxy9ZRY
Thanks to the folks at the Volokh Conspiracy for the ponter.
Fredo’s Revenge (The Godfather, Part IV) suggests that Gonzalez’s trip to the hospital bed of then AG John Ashcroft is outrunning the federal prosecuter firings as his biggest sin; it will be hard for the Senate to keep up!