U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may not realize it, but he’s a dead man walking. That’s the term used to describe a prisoner on death row, and Gonzales now fits the description, having lost the support of the U.S. Congress—including that of many Republican senators. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary committee, after Gonzales’ testimony before his committee, said, “The attorney general’s testimony was very, very damaging to his own credibility. It has been damaging to the administration. No doubt, it is bad for the Department of Justice. It is harmful. There has been a very substantial decrease in morale.”
What has put the final nail in Gonzales’ coffin is the testimony provided before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 15, 2007, by James Comey, former deputy U.S. attorney general under Attorney General John Ashcroft. Comey’s powerful testimony is riveting in exposing Gonzales for the villain he is.
The testimony relates to an incident that occurred in March 2004. Shortly before Attorney General Ashcroft was taken to George Washington hospital with acute pancreatitis, he was briefed by Comey, his deputy, on a matter concerning the National Security Agency which had requested renewal of authorization by the Department of Justice to continue with a program so secret that Comey would not discuss it when testifying three years later before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The NSA is the number one U.S. security agency and engages in large part in monitoring the airwaves and phone calls taking place overseas. Comey and the Department of Justice lawyers had concluded that the program as conducted violated U.S. laws and declined to authorize its continuation. Ashcroft agreed with Comey’s recommendation.
When a seriously ill Ashcroft went to the hospital, he designated Comey as acting U.S. attorney general. On the evening of March 10, 2004, a telephone call from Mrs. Ashcroft alerted Comey that Alberto Gonzales, then the president’s counsel, and Andrew Card, then the president’s chief of staff, were coming to the hospital bedside of John Ashcroft. Comey testified he feared “given how ill I knew the attorney general was, that there might be an effort to ask him to overrule me, when he was in no condition to do that.”
Comey raced to get to Ashcroft’s bedside before Gonzales and Card arrived, and he was successful, using lights and sirens and racing up the stairs to the fifth floor. He was going to a crime scene to prevent a crime from being committed.
The hospital room meeting between Comey and Ashcroft convinced Ashcroft to continue to support the objections to the program raised by Comey; their meeting was followed by the entrance of Card and Gonzales. The two sought to convince Ashcroft to reverse Comey’s decision. He refused.
So, we have Gonzales—pledged to support the U.S. laws and constitution—seeking to get the attorney general to overrule his own staff who believed the NSA program to be illegal. Isn’t it awesome that Ashcroft, a very conservative lawyer and former U.S. senator, hated by the liberals, in effect, thwarted an attempt by the president’s counsel and chief of staff to subvert the law?
Ashcroft is now in the private sector in Washington, D.C., having recovered from his illness. Comey is also in the private sector. Comey testified, “The program was reauthorized without us and without a signature from the Department of Justice attesting as to its legality. And I prepared a letter of resignation, intending to resign the next day, Friday, March the 12th.”
Comey did not resign that day and explained why: He was called by Attorney General Ashcroft’s chief of staff and, as he testified, “I ended up agreeing—Mr. Ashcroft’s chief of staff asked me something that meant a great deal to him, and that is that I not resign until Mr. Ashcroft was well enough to resign with me.”
Why do I repeat this story, which appeared in the media? Many people who watched the Republican presidential candidates, who debated twice recently, and read the follow-up comments in the media, came away with a sense of despair, thinking, “Can’t the GOP do better? Isn’t our great country entitled to a better choice for those voting Republican in the next election?” Don't worry, I will discuss the Democratic candidates with equal frankness in a later commentary.
Why don’t Republican opinion-makers and leaders consider a draft of James Comey for President? A movie might be made called, Mr. Comey Goes to the White House, with Comey played by Leonardo DiCaprio. No, too short since Comey is well over 6-feet tall. I know because I had lunch with him a couple of years ago at Forlini’s in Manhattan.
Mr. President, you are surrounded by incompetents and rapscallions.
