Gonzales Assessed

By Scott Horton

A Republican described the hearing as “watching the clubbing of a baby seal.” That seems unfair. A baby seal is a cuddly, charming mammal. Gonzales is an adult, a trained professional, a lawyer who has betrayed the most fundamental rules of his profession. Watching his performance, one can only come away asking how this man served as a Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, was a partner at one of Texas' most prominent law firms, and then served as counsel to the president in the White House. To call him a mediocrity would be too generous. But the New York Times does better:

Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch.

His appointment was an insult to the Department of Justice as an institution. His confirmation was a grave mistake. Reversing the damage he has done will take the better part of a generation. But this story does not end with Gonzales. One fact was abundantly clear from the entire sad melodrama: the man calling the shots on all these issues was not Alberto Gonzales. It was Karl Rove. As the Times writes

At the end of the day, we were left wondering why the nation's chief law-enforcement officer would paint himself as a bumbling fool. Perhaps it's because the alternative is that he is not telling the truth. There is strong evidence that this purge was directed from the White House, and that Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's top political adviser, and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, were deeply involved.