\jeff{krimmel}

Should Alberto Gonzales Be Impeached?

I have pondered this question several times recently, as I have learned more about how the Department of Justice has increasingly at best turned a blind eye toward civil liberties violations and at worst participated in said violations. From the torture and indefinite detention of an American citizen to a years long ignorance of illegal spying by the FBI, the Department of Justice has failed across the board in its commitment to protect American citizens from an overzealous federal government.

Calls for the impeachment of Mr. Gonzales have come from the various corners of the blogosphere, but today is the first day I have seen a member of Congress broach the subject of the attorney general’s departure:

“Attorney General Gonzales is a nice man, but he either doesn’t accept or doesn’t understand that he is no longer just the president’s lawyer, but has a higher obligation to the rule of law and the Constitution even when the president should not want it to be so,” [Senator Charles] Schumer said.

“And so this department has been so political that I think for the sake of the nation, Attorney General Gonzales should step down,” he said.

I understand that Sen. Schumer has only called for Mr. Gonzales’ resignation. But we all know Mr. Gonzales won’t resign. And we also all know that President Bush will not ask for his resignation or dismiss Mr. Gonzales himself. The only realistic option to protect the American people from further violations of their civil liberties at the hands of President Bush’s unitary executive is to impeach, and subsequently remove, the attorney general.

I am no legal scholar, and I do not know what sort of precedent, if any, is available to guide the procession along this path. I also doubt Democrats in Congress would want to invite the circus that would result from impeachment proceedings. But the American people deserve to have their rights protected, and it is clear the Department of Justice, as it is currently set up, has failed miserably in that regard.