I would agree that, overall, this Alberto Gonzales scandal isn’t exactly much of a scandal. It’s just the way things go when you hire people out of loyalty and not competence.
The bottom line is that the Attorney General stood before Congress and told them he wasn’t in any way involved in the process to fire the U.S. attorneys. Now the Justice Department has just released clear evidence that he was indeed involved and at a high level. The head of our legal branch stood before Congress and lied to them. This is the very same thing the Right would have you believe was so reprehensible in what President Clinton did. The difference was the Clinton lied about an infidelity and Gonzales lied about the job itself.
The current President has got to stop hiring people based on their past loyalty and hire people who are clearly up to the tasks presented to them. The sad part is that it appears it’s going to take all of his remaining term to realize the gig is up and that Congress is no longer going to just rubber stamp everything he wants to do. In fact, I’m not sure he’s ever going to catch on.
I’m in no way surprised by the situation Gonzales finds himself in. It was clear from the start that this was yet another loyalty-based hiring. It’s time to end the practice.
