Dear Mr. Dickerson,

Your column would have made much more sense after the firing of Michael Brown, a man who truly seemed incompetent, even in President Bush's eyes.

Alberto Gonzales, though, was not at all incompetent at the job he was assigned by the President. He was, of course, highly incompetent at the typical job of Attorney General, in which he is was supposed to serve the People and the Constitution. But that wasn't the job that Mr. Bush wanted him to do. Mr. Bush wanted Mr. Gonzales to fire US Attorneys who were prosecuting Republicans or who were refusing to file bogus charges against Democrats. Mr. Bush also wanted Mr. Gonzales to appear to be forthcoming with Congress while at the same time steadfastly avoiding giving any impression that the directives to politicize the DOJ originated in the Whitehouse, in Karl Rove's and/or Dick Cheney's offices. This was, of course, an impossible task (it required lots of "I don't recall"s and a bit of lying), but Gonzales tackled this job that the President had assigned him masterfully. The Democrats in Congress were hoping finally to be able to pin the politicization of Justice — probably obstruction of justice — on the Whitehouse, and Gonzales entirely stymied them. Almost any other man would have rolled on his bosses, in order to preserve a shred of his own good name. Not Alberto Gonzales: he allowed himself to be the scapegoat for all that is wrong with the Administration's handling of Justice, and in so doing whitewashed the Whitehouse.

Incompetent? Not by a long shot.

In some ways I agree. He is definately the fall guy.

However, he swore to uphold the Constitution. That doesn't mean lying to Congress and the American people.

Presently, it is difficult to fill top Cabinet post with quality individuals. Why? Because anyone that takes those post will have to lie and will probably be another scapegoat.

Since most politicians are basically patriotic and will refuse to lie to Congress and the American people, the gene pool is lessened. This will cause even more yes men and women with less talent to be nominated. Congress will not be as kind as it has been in the past. Checks and balances is going to work.

Bush43 is in deep do-do.

wdp

I totally disagree on Gonzales being competent. The following escapade was reprehensible and set a new low for the low-life in this current Administration.

' White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., were on their way to the hospital to persuade Ashcroft to reauthorize Bush's domestic surveillance program, which the Justice Department had just determined was illegal.

In vivid testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Comey said he alerted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and raced, sirens blaring, to join Ashcroft in his hospital room, arriving minutes before Gonzales and Card. Ashcroft, summoning the strength to lift his head and speak, refused to sign the papers they had brought. Gonzales and Card, who had never acknowledged Comey's presence in the room, turned and left.

The sickbed visit was the start of a dramatic showdown between the White House and the Justice Department in early 2004 that, according to Comey, was resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card. But that was not before Ashcroft, Comey, Mueller and their aides prepared a mass resignation, Comey said. The domestic spying by the National Security Agency continued for several weeks without Justice approval, he said.

"I was angry," Comey testified. "I thought I just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me." '

That does not make Gonzales incompetent. It shows that Gonzales is a yes man that blindly does what he is told to do by the White House.

The Constitution be damned. Whatever Bush43 says do, Gonzo does.

wdp

If Gonzo's real job was to be Bush's front man on the lies before Congress, then he really was incompetent at his job. He was just about the worst liar to testify before Congress in decades.

You're right that he was a loyal toadie for the administration, but he was not a competent toadie.

You are probably correct that Gonzales, in many ways like Rove, was just another Republican "goon". I would sure like to see the job description for the Attorney General to see if it said "spineless and weak minded gopher".

it also shows that he and card are extreemly unethical and dishonest,plus being the types that don't value the law or what is right and true.These two scum are no better than the common criminal that takes advantage of honest people for thier own sycophantic agenda.

Worst liar to testify before Congress? Look, he was placed in an impossible situation. It was impossible for him to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and at the same time protect his superiors. But Bush wasn't interested in Gonzales telling boatloads of truth. Bush was interested in Gonzales not revealing any Whitehouse involvement whatsoever. And that's exactly what Gonzales did. Gonzales did not maintain even the semblance of "truthiness", but again, given his circumstances, it was pretty impossible for him to.

What qualifies someone as a competent toadie? Isn't it doing his toad-work well? If someone is hired to the job of frog, but his boss really wants him to be a toad, and he is a highly effective toad, he is a competent toadie, even if the rest of us look at him as a lousy frog.

The whole point is, Dickerson implies that Bush sees all these hacks who are doing lousy work by his standards and yet he holds onto them out of loyalty. With Michael Brown, that point seems valid. With Gonzales, it is not. Gonzales may have been a lousy attorney general by your standards and mine, but he successfully politicized the DOJ while at the same time hiding any Whitehouse involvement. In other words, he did exactly what Bush wanted him to do.

Heckuva job, Gonzo!

dslack:

What qualifies someone as a competent toadie? Isn't it doing his toad-work well? If someone is hired to the job of frog, but his boss really wants him to be a toad, and he is a highly effective toad, he is a competent toadie, even if the rest of us look at him as a lousy frog.

But that's the problem, he wasn't effective as a toad or a frog. When even republicans in the senate are calling for him to resign, that means his lies are so obviously transparent that no one can stomach them.