Expressing The Sense Of The Senate That Attorney General Alberto Gonzales No Longer Holds The Confidence Of The Senate And Of The American People--Mot

Floor Speech

EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO GONZALES NO LONGER HOLDS THE CONFIDENCE OF THE SENATE AND OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE--MOTION TO PROCEED -- (Senate - June 11, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Missouri for her remarks. Like her, I have been appointed and elected as a U.S. attorney and as an attorney general. I ask all of my colleagues who are listening to take her at her word. Prosecutors across the country are horrified about what has happened. I applaud Senator Schumer for what he has done to push this forward.

The Senate has an important oversight role. We have advice and consent responsibilities, and we have a Judiciary Committee on which Senator Schumer and I serve. I tell you, the U.S. Department of Justice is a precious institution in our democracy. It is under siege from within, and we need to take some action.

This resolution is not about partisanship. It is not about scoring political points. It is about two very important things--one, letting the people of America know we care about an honest, independent, and truthful Department of Justice. That is not meaningless. It is also about letting the career people within the Department of Justice know that we hear them, we care about them, we know what has been done to this Department is shameful; that this ordeal for them will one day be over, and we will work hard as people who care about this country and about the Department of Justice to make that day come soon, so that once again truth and justice can be the stars that guide the Department of Justice. That, too, is not meaningless.

Madam President, the bill of particulars against Attorney General Gonzales is long. First is the fact that he does not respect the institution he leads. Time-honored traditions and practices of the Department, vital to the impartial administration of justice, have been gravely damaged or destroyed on his watch.

One, U.S. attorneys used to come from their home districts, where they were accountable to local people, where they knew the judges and the law enforcement officers. Not under this Attorney General. Now they fly them in from Washington where they will do President Bush's bidding.

Two, U.S. attorneys were always put up for advice and consent. Not under this Attorney General. He presided over the statutory circumvention of our Senate confirmation process.

Three, the list of people at the White House and the DOJ who used to be able to talk about cases with each other recently included only four people at the White House and only three at the DOJ. Not under this Attorney General, where 417 White House officials, including Karl Rove, can now have these formerly illicit conversations with the Department of Justice.

Four, career attorneys were kept free of partisan interference. Not under this Attorney General. There are politics in the Honors Program, politics in career official appointments, politics in personnel evaluations, and politics in the appointment of immigration judges.

Five, U.S. attorneys were almost always left in place to do their jobs once they were appointed, knowing that they had a higher calling than their political appointment. Not under this Attorney General. Simply put, a man who doesn't care about those institutions of the Department of Justice is the wrong person to lead it back out of the mess he has put it in.

He has politicized this Department to a degree not seen since the Nixon administration--U.S. attorneys fired for political reasons, with White House fingerprints all over the place, and Karl Rove and others passing on information to the Department of Justice about voter fraud to pump up interest in cases. DOJ policy is ignored, with no justification; written policy was ignored to bring indictments on the eve of a critical election in the State of Missouri; the White House Counsel chastising a U.S. attorney over mishandling a case. How does the White House Counsel know whether a DOJ attorney mishandled the case? Who is telling him what is going on in the DOJ? The DOJ even invented the position of White House Liaison--first time ever--who, by her own admission, screened applicants based on inappropriate and probably illegal political factors.

Third, the Attorney General has set the bar for his office far too low. His stated definition of what is improper for him and his staff, believe it or not, tracks the legal standard for criminal obstruction of justice. Is that the kind of Attorney General we want? Is that the kind of accountability to himself we want? The Attorney General should do a lot better than that.

There has been an almost unbelievable series of half-truths and obfuscations coming out of the Attorney General and his circle. They told us that the firings of U.S. attorneys were performance related. Not true. They told us the Attorney General was not involved and didn't discuss the plan to fire U.S. attorneys. Not true. They told us the White House was not involved. Not true. They told us these EARS performance evaluations were not relevant. Not true. They told us the Attorney General didn't discuss the substance of the testimony with other witnesses during the investigation. Not true. They told us the Chief of Staff of the Deputy Attorney General never made threatening calls to U.S. attorneys who were going to publicly discuss the matter. Again, not true.

How many times can the Department of Justice say things that are not true?

Fifth, the hypocrisy is almost unbelievable. The Attorney General's own incompetence and misjudgments fail the very test he claimed he set for the fired U.S. attorneys. As one of my colleagues said to Attorney General Gonzales at his hearing, ``Why should you not be judged by the same standards at which you judged these dismissed U.S. Attorneys?''

Madam President, our Attorney General would fail that standard. How can he oversee our Federal Bureau of Investigation when the FBI Director had to warn FBI agents guarding the Attorney General not to obey his instructions, when he was White House Counsel scurrying over to the ailing Attorney General's hospital room to try to get his signature on a document?

You can say this is just a partisan exercise, but it may take a decade to repair the damage Attorney General Gonzales has caused. Every day that passes without his resignation is one more day before the repair has begun. From the perspective of the Bush administration, I can see how a wounded, grateful Attorney General on a very short leash may be just as they want as they try to exit Washington without further indictments. But that is not the Attorney General America needs to maintain the best traditions of the Department of Justice through administration and administration and administration, through Republicans and Democrats alike, and to ensure the fair administration of justice in our country.

As a former U.S. attorney who has profound respect for the Department of Justice and its thousands of career employees, I believe America deserves an Attorney General who will lead by example, who will set the very highest standard for himself and his staff, who will do his best to keep politics out of the justice system and will restore the country's faith and confidence in one of its most important institutions.

Please set aside politics and let us stand up for the Department of Justice. Let us restore a vital institution in American life. Please let us vote for
cloture and proceed to do what our duty calls for us to do.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source