Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -who helped discredit the DOJ, reducing it to nothing more but a political tool of the state against its enemies - has some thoughts to share:
"It was cool to work in the White House."
What, is he five?
'The notion that what happened at Abu Ghraib was a result of the policies of the Bush administration I just think is totally ridiculous."
Policies permitting torture lead to people being tortured are not connected? M'kay.
What happened to him is politics? What about what happened to Don Siegelman, Paul Minor and others? What should we call that?"I think 90 percent of what happened to me is politics, pure and simple. It's tough to knock out a president. But if you can get someone who is viewed as close to the president, then that may be a good thing."
"This may sound egotistical, but to me it is important that when I leave this earth, I would have made a difference — that people would know Al Gonzales lived, he touched lives, he made a difference, he left a mark."
How did that work out Fredo?
"Putting my lawyer hat aside, the notion that we'd have to get legalistic about torture, yeah, can be offensive to me. It's inconsistent with American values. But as a lawyer — as a lawyer — you have to try to put meaning to the words passed by Congress."
Inconsistent with American values? Yes, we all agree. But Gonzo did get legalistic about torture. That is the problem. He knows it. We all know it.
"We should have abandoned the idea of removing the U. S. attorneys once the Democrats took the Senate. Because at that point we could really not count on Republicans to cut off investigations or help us at all with investigations. We didn't see that at the Department of Justice. Nor did the White House see that. Karl didn't see it. If we could do something over again, that would be it."
