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May 22, 2007

Gonzales Is a Dead-Man Walking

By Ed Koch

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may not realize it, but he is a dead man walking.

That's the term used to describe a prisoner on death row. Gonzales now fits the description, having lost the support of the U.S. Congress, including that of many republican Senators. Arlen Specter (R-PA), 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."

There is now pending in the Congress a non-binding resolution expressing no confidence in the attorney general which may be voted on before the end of the week.

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. It is annexed.

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 air waves 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. Comey testified, "And it was only a matter of minutes that the door opened and in walked Mr. Gonzales, carrying an envelope, and Mr. Card. They came over and stood by the bed. They greeted the attorney general very briefly. And then Mr. Gonzales began to discuss why they were there -- to seek his approval for a matter, and explained what the matter was -- which I will not do. And Attorney General Ashcroft then stunned me. He lifted his head off the pillow and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter, rich in both substance and fact, which stunned me -- drawn from the hour-long meeting we'd had a week earlier -- and in very strong terms expressed himself, and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, 'But that doesn't matter, because I'm not the attorney general. There is the attorney general' and he pointed to me. The two men did not acknowledge me. They turned and walked from the room. And within just a few moments after that Director Mueller arrived. I told him quickly what had happened. He had a brief -- a memorable brief exchange with the attorney general and then we went outside in the hallway."

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. He was very concerned that Mr. Ashcroft was not well enough to understand fully what was going on. And he begged me to wait until -- this was Thursday that I was making this decision -- to wait [un]til Monday to give him the weekend to get oriented enough so that I wouldn't leave him behind, was his concern. I agreed to wait. I said that what I would do is -- that Friday would be [my] last day. And Monday morning I would resign. I went to the Oval Office -- as I did every morning as acting attorney general -- with Director Mueller to brief the president and the vice president on what was going on in Justice Department's counterterrorism work. We had the briefing. And as I was leaving, the president asked to speak to me, took me in his study and we had a one-on-one meeting for about 15 minutes -- again, which I will not go into the substance of. It was a very full exchange. And at the end of that meeting, at my urging, he met with Director Mueller, who was waiting for me downstairs. He met with Director Mueller again privately, just the two of them. And then after those two sessions, we had his direction to do the right thing, to do what we believed, what the Justice Department believed was necessary to put this matter on a footing where we could certify to its legality."

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 G.O.P. 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; Comey is well over six 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.

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