Goodbye, Alberto Gonzales
Oh, Judge Gonzales, your loyal patron, Mr. Bush, said today, “It is sad when a talented and honorable person who is impeding (sic) from his work because his name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.”Was that why you left the Justice Department so suddenly? Or was it because of your shame over authoring the White House memo authorizing torture and denial of habeas corpus? Was it for the nighttime dogging of a hospitalized Attorney General Ashcroft to get the pained and drugged old man to sign off on the previously rejected illegal surveillance program you wanted? Or was it for your failure to stand accountable before the US Senate for actions taken on your watch in firing perfectly competent US attorneys for political reasons? Was it for the half-truths and mis-truths under oath? Or was it because of your incompetent management of the Department of Justice, and your putting loyalty to the President above loyalty to the Constitution and the American people? Which of these are the reasons you did not survive your brief tenure as America’s top justice official, Mr. Gonzales.
“Justice”, hmm, a concept worth pondering. Not unlike “karma”.
Perhaps the most revealing statement you made during your brief resignation speech on August 27, 2007, was “my worst day at the Department of Justice was better than my father’s best day.”
Your father was reportedly a humble man, a migrant worker who labored hard in construction and plant maintenance to raise his family of eight children.
You have said of your father: “He was an alcoholic, and there were many nights when I remember him coming home and, you know, severe arguments with my mother and throwing the pillow over my head and just trying to not listen to all of that. I mean, unfortunately, those happened way too often. But one story I do like to tell about my father is, no matter how much he drank on a particular night, if it was a work day the next morning, he was always up and he was always gone to provide for his family, so I learned that lesson very early on. But, you know, in that respect, I mean there were some difficult times in my family.”
Was it from these early painful episodes you decided that torturing others was not so bad? Was it the resentment of your father that made you feel that attempts to trick an old man in pain into signing off on an illegal surveillance program?
Your father lived a difficult life, anonymously raising eight children in relative poverty (though less poor than if he had stayed in Mexico). Your opportunities grew from his pain and sacrifice, and that of your mother, oh, and from the largesse of Mr. Bush.
I would wager that air conditioned offices and celebrity aside, your best days in the White House and Department of Justice were really never more damaging to this nation and our Constitution than your father’s drunkenness, unless you choose to blame that for your cavalier dealing with truth and constitutional rights.
That you would so casually devalue your father’s life before the American people, and that you would so easily boast of your life in comparison to his, speaks volumes about you, Judge.
Labels: Bush Alberto Gonzales
posted by DanZ @ 10:37 PM
0 comments
