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08-27-2007, 10:41 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/27/gonzales/index.html
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation Monday after enduring months of bipartisan calls that he leave office.
Alberto Gonzales was dogged by controversial issues including wiretapping programs and fired U.S. attorneys.
"I have lived the American dream," said Gonzales, the nation's first Latino to hold the post. "Even my worst days as Attorney General have been better than my father's best days."
Gonzales described public service as "honorable and noble" and thanked President Bush for his friendship.
"Yesterday I met with President Bush and informed him of my decision to conclude my government services as Attorney General of the United States effective September 17."
Gonzales did not take questions from reporters.
Bush will likely nominate Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to the position, senior administration officials said.
Chertoff has headed Homeland Security since 2005. He served as a federal appellate court judge, a federal prosecutor and as special counsel for a Senate committee investigating President Clinton's involvement in the Whitewater land development.
President Bush is expected to make a statement about Gonzales at 11:50 a.m. from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he has been vacationing, but will not announce a replacement, two senior administration officials said.
Gonzales aides at the highest level and other top-level officials knew nothing about the announcement in advance, Justice Department sources told CNN.
They were not informed until a meeting Monday morning, sources said, when Gonzales acknowledged he would be reading a statement later in the day.
One of Gonzales' chief Democratic critics, New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, appealed to the administration "to work with us to nominate someone whom Democrats can support and America can be proud of."
Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, would replace Chertoff, the senior administration officials said.
Johnson, a longtime friend of Bush, served as the president's chief of staff and appointments secretary when Bush was governor of Texas. He was executive director of the Bush-Cheney transition team.
Although Bush had long stood by Gonzales, many members of Congress from both sides of the aisle had called on him to quit after the firing of several U.S. attorneys in 2006.
Schumer and several congressional Democrats have asked for a special counsel to investigate Gonzales' involvement in what has been charged to be the politically motivated firings of several U.S. attorneys and a controversial government no-warrant wiretapping program.
Senior Justice Department officials say Gonzales' resignation is not expected to affect the scope or pace of an ongoing internal investigation into the firing of the U.S. attorneys and other issues.
"Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday. "He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove." Rove, another longtime Bush official and his top political adviser, also resigned this month.
"This resignation is not the end of the story," Reid warned. "Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House."
In a statement, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said Gonzales was responsible for a "severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence."
Leahy called the experience "a lesson to those in the future who hold these high offices, so that law enforcement is never subverted in this way again."
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said the attorney general's move was "better late than never."
Schumer hailed Gonzales' resignation.
"I think that clearly this was the right thing to do," the New York Democrat told CNN. "It took a long time but there is no question about it that the Justice Department is virtually non-functional."
Schumer added that, "no one thought Alberto Gonzales was up to the job" saying that "we need someone who will put rule of law first."
But Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky expressed "hope that whomever President Bush selects as the next attorney general, he or she is not subjected to the same poisonous partisanship that we've sadly grown accustomed to over the past eight months."
Describing Gonzales' resignation as a reaction to "basically unproven charges," GOP Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas called it "a sad day and sad commentary on the hyperpartisan atmosphere in Washington."
Moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called it "a positive step forward."
After Rove's resignation, senior administration officials said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten had told senior aides that if they intended to stay after Labor Day, they should plan to remain for the rest of Bush's term through January 2009.
Throughout Gonzales' time as attorney general, controversies surrounded his positions on issues such as U.S. interrogation techniques and the wiretapping of conversations between Americans and suspected terrorists overseas.
This year, after Congress began an investigation into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, Gonzales faced a great deal of scrutiny -- and the calls for his dismissal began.
The Senate Judiciary Committee looked into whether the administration may have fired some or all of them for political reasons. In his testimony before the committee on multiple occasions, Gonzales repeatedly seemed to contradict himself, other members of his department, or Justice Department documents.
The attorney general also testified that he could not answer dozens of questions because he could not "recall" certain incidents or meetings.
Gonzales was also at the center of a dispute over the controversial no-warrant eavesdropping program authorized by Bush and his testimony that there was no dissent among administration officials over the program. Gonzales later sent a letter to Senate leaders acknowledging he "may have created confusion" in his testimony.
Gonzales said the dissent erupted over "other intelligence activities" and he would not discuss what he meant by "other."
Gonzales appeared to contradict Senate testimony by FBI Director Robert Mueller that a confrontation between Gonzales and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in Ashcroft's hospital room in 2004 was indeed about the controversial surveillance program.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation Monday after enduring months of bipartisan calls that he leave office.
Alberto Gonzales was dogged by controversial issues including wiretapping programs and fired U.S. attorneys.
"I have lived the American dream," said Gonzales, the nation's first Latino to hold the post. "Even my worst days as Attorney General have been better than my father's best days."
Gonzales described public service as "honorable and noble" and thanked President Bush for his friendship.
"Yesterday I met with President Bush and informed him of my decision to conclude my government services as Attorney General of the United States effective September 17."
Gonzales did not take questions from reporters.
Bush will likely nominate Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to the position, senior administration officials said.
Chertoff has headed Homeland Security since 2005. He served as a federal appellate court judge, a federal prosecutor and as special counsel for a Senate committee investigating President Clinton's involvement in the Whitewater land development.
President Bush is expected to make a statement about Gonzales at 11:50 a.m. from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he has been vacationing, but will not announce a replacement, two senior administration officials said.
Gonzales aides at the highest level and other top-level officials knew nothing about the announcement in advance, Justice Department sources told CNN.
They were not informed until a meeting Monday morning, sources said, when Gonzales acknowledged he would be reading a statement later in the day.
One of Gonzales' chief Democratic critics, New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, appealed to the administration "to work with us to nominate someone whom Democrats can support and America can be proud of."
Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, would replace Chertoff, the senior administration officials said.
Johnson, a longtime friend of Bush, served as the president's chief of staff and appointments secretary when Bush was governor of Texas. He was executive director of the Bush-Cheney transition team.
Although Bush had long stood by Gonzales, many members of Congress from both sides of the aisle had called on him to quit after the firing of several U.S. attorneys in 2006.
Schumer and several congressional Democrats have asked for a special counsel to investigate Gonzales' involvement in what has been charged to be the politically motivated firings of several U.S. attorneys and a controversial government no-warrant wiretapping program.
Senior Justice Department officials say Gonzales' resignation is not expected to affect the scope or pace of an ongoing internal investigation into the firing of the U.S. attorneys and other issues.
"Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday. "He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove." Rove, another longtime Bush official and his top political adviser, also resigned this month.
"This resignation is not the end of the story," Reid warned. "Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House."
In a statement, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said Gonzales was responsible for a "severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence."
Leahy called the experience "a lesson to those in the future who hold these high offices, so that law enforcement is never subverted in this way again."
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said the attorney general's move was "better late than never."
Schumer hailed Gonzales' resignation.
"I think that clearly this was the right thing to do," the New York Democrat told CNN. "It took a long time but there is no question about it that the Justice Department is virtually non-functional."
Schumer added that, "no one thought Alberto Gonzales was up to the job" saying that "we need someone who will put rule of law first."
But Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky expressed "hope that whomever President Bush selects as the next attorney general, he or she is not subjected to the same poisonous partisanship that we've sadly grown accustomed to over the past eight months."
Describing Gonzales' resignation as a reaction to "basically unproven charges," GOP Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas called it "a sad day and sad commentary on the hyperpartisan atmosphere in Washington."
Moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called it "a positive step forward."
After Rove's resignation, senior administration officials said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten had told senior aides that if they intended to stay after Labor Day, they should plan to remain for the rest of Bush's term through January 2009.
Throughout Gonzales' time as attorney general, controversies surrounded his positions on issues such as U.S. interrogation techniques and the wiretapping of conversations between Americans and suspected terrorists overseas.
This year, after Congress began an investigation into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, Gonzales faced a great deal of scrutiny -- and the calls for his dismissal began.
The Senate Judiciary Committee looked into whether the administration may have fired some or all of them for political reasons. In his testimony before the committee on multiple occasions, Gonzales repeatedly seemed to contradict himself, other members of his department, or Justice Department documents.
The attorney general also testified that he could not answer dozens of questions because he could not "recall" certain incidents or meetings.
Gonzales was also at the center of a dispute over the controversial no-warrant eavesdropping program authorized by Bush and his testimony that there was no dissent among administration officials over the program. Gonzales later sent a letter to Senate leaders acknowledging he "may have created confusion" in his testimony.
Gonzales said the dissent erupted over "other intelligence activities" and he would not discuss what he meant by "other."
Gonzales appeared to contradict Senate testimony by FBI Director Robert Mueller that a confrontation between Gonzales and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in Ashcroft's hospital room in 2004 was indeed about the controversial surveillance program.