US:Alberto Gonzales's resignation will bring into greater focus George Bush's tendency to place loyalty above all other qualities, write Edward Luceand Demetri Sevastopulo
Alberto Gonzales yesterday announced the end of his service to the Bush administration in much the same way that he provided it - without divulging any information. The man who said "I don't recall" or "I have no recollection" more than 100 times in testimony to Congress this year will go down as one of the most secretive cabinet officers in modern US history.
An intensely loyal "Bushie", Gonzales will also be seen as the most partisan attorney general in the US since John Mitchell, Richard Nixon's senior law officer, who resigned in 1972.
A close friend of George W Bush before he became governor of Texas in 1994, Gonzales was appointed as a White House counsel when Bush took office in January 2001. He became attorney general in 2005 after the retirement of John Ashcroft.
"As attorney general, Alberto Gonzales's first duty was to serve the constitution and uphold the law of the land, but he continued to behave as though he were Bush's personal lawyer," said Carl Tobias, a professor of constitutional law.
"It is hard to think of any single figure who has done as much as Gonzales to politicise the department of justice or who saw the law in such a political light."
Yesterday's resignation will bring into greater focus Bush's tendency to place loyalty above all other qualities among those who surround him. Just three weeks ago, Bush said he had full confidence in Gonzales in spite of the fact that the attorney general's sworn testimony to Congress had been directly contradicted by Robert Mueller, head of the FBI.
Gonzales had denied that as White House counsel he had visited Ashcroft on his sick bed in hospital in 2004 to press the then attorney general to sign off on the renewal of the president's still secret - and allegedly unconstitutional - expansion of wire-tapping authority.
Gonzales's account was also contradicted in testimony to Congress this year by Jim Comey, who had accompanied Gonzales on the 2004 hospital visit as acting attorney general.
By sticking with Gonzales in spite of growing calls from Republican as well as Democratic senators for his removal, many believed that Bush was ultimately seeking to protect Karl Rove, his senior political adviser, whom Democrats believed was the prime mover behind a separate controversy over the allegedly political sacking of nine federal prosecutors last year.
But Rove's resignation this month, and the fact that Gonzales's remaining 17 months as attorney general were likely to be dominated by continuing congressional investigations, left Bush little choice but to accept his resignation at the weekend.
A number of lawmakers had also joined calls to impeach Gonzales in a tide that Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, described as "the race to be most toxic".
"They said that Karl Rove was leaving town before the sheriff arrived, and the same might be doubly true of Alberto Gonzales," said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian.
"People will be looking through the official records for many years to ferret out just how deep the political corruption went during his time at justice."
But it was Gonzales's role as White House counsel in Bush's first term that will prove more controversial. After the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, he was central in helping expand the powers of the presidency.
Among other initiatives, Gonzales helped frame the legal justification for extending the White House's "executive privilege" to permit the detention of suspects without trial, to eavesdrop on conversations without judicial warrant, to circumvent the Geneva conventions on torture (which Gonzales called "quaint"), and to establish the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay.
A number of senior officials, including secretary of defence Robert Gates and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, have been arguing for the closure of Guantánamo. Gonzales was thought to have been an ally of vice-president Dick Cheney in arguing against this. His departure could strengthen the hand of those pushing for its closure.
Attention will now focus on who Bush will nominate to replace Gonzales and how the Democratic Congress will treat the nominee. Paul Clement, the solicitor general, will be acting attorney general until then.
"If Bush wants to avoid controversy, he can keep Clement in place indefinitely," said Tobias.
Gonzales will bequeath a justice department shorn of almost its entire upper echelon. The top three positions - of attorney general, deputy attorney general and associate attorney general - are vacant.
It is thought to be likely that both Gonzales and Rove will cite "executive privilege" in refusing to testify on sensitive matters to Congress, whose investigation will continue.