John Edwards said it, and let the record reflect that for the first and probably last time, I agree with him when, in response to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez’s resignation, he responded, “better late than never”. I’ll try and be clear: He should never have been appointed in the first place and the job was way over his head, but for the President the entire issue of the firing of the U. S. Attorneys should have been a one-day event, as in “These people are political appointees, they serve at my pleasure, and I exercised my prerogative to replace them. Next item.” Instead we are treated to a six month soap opera and death by a thousand gaffes. The tendency of the Bush White House to self immolation seems to be pathological.
Now on to his replacement, who will have a number of very important issues on his or her plate, which can be summed up by one overriding consideration—restoring the executive authority of the President to protect Americans, beginning with the authority for the surveillance of our suspected enemies who want to kill us. On this point, Newt Gingrich had the following comment in a speech in New Hampshire in July: “{this war} will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in this country,……to learn how to close down every web site that is dangerous…….we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to use free speech……..This is a serious problem that will lead to a serious debate about the first amendment.” In fairness, Gonzalez was pretty good on the issues of Presidential authority in matters of national security. Now the President should move quickly to send to the Senate a strong, conservative advocate willing to push the envelope on these points. No “moderates”, no “appeasement”; these are issues about which the American people feel very strongly. There are some good names floating about; for what it’s worth, my first choice would be former Solicitor General Ted Olson.
