With Alberto Gonzales soon to be departed, I hoped to comment briefly on his tenure in the White House, and as US Attorney General.

Mr. Gonzales said the following recently, in a short speech announcing his resignation: “Public service is honorable, and noble.”

Well, that may be true, but we should ask ourselves, why did he say it? To remind us of his honor and nobility? To congratulate himself? But I’m being coy. In truth, I think the reason is pretty evident.

It is hard to miss the defensiveness implied in Mr. Gonzales’s self-serving statement. It is interesting to hear a man describe as honorable and noble his commitment to sweeping and unprecedented executive power. It is interesting to hear him describe as honorable and noble his lap dog eagerness to cater to the powerful corporations and war profiteers that lie in bed with his beloved mentor, George W. Bush.

I wonder, does Mr. Gonzales judge his work as US Attorney General as honorable, and noble? Excepting the moral cowards who toe the party line without actually examining the facts, it seems few would agree. Much the way FEMA was drained, weakened, stripped of its resources and, in the words of a FEMA employee “effectively marginalized” under President George W. Bush’s changes prior to hurricane Katrina, which included the installation of one of his incompetent cronies as director, the US Department of Justice was “Demoralized. Discredited. Dynsfunctional.” under Alberto Gonzalez’s extremely incompetent leadership.

Mr. Gonzales stated that he is someone who has “lived the American dream.” What a truly perverse idea he must have of that. I sometimes wonder if Alberto Gonzales has been manipulated and exploited by the Bush family, and deserving of our compassion for it. The gratitude and admiration in his eyes for his mentor is unmistakeable. Whether he is personally predisposed to fascism, war profiteering and the sanction of torture I couldn’t say. From a distance, it’s hard to discern what may be just an extremely weak character coupled with greed, from actual malicious intent. The fact is, whatever the reason, he did further these things.

After all this, that Mr. Gonzales can refer to his “public service” without laughing out loud is either a powerful testament to his corruption and cynicism, or strikingly weak morality and intellect.

In seven short years, Alberto Gonzales has done more to impugn democracy, freedom, civil liberties, constitutional rights and executive accountability to the public than most could do in a lifetime. I hardly see unprecedented intrusion of US citizen’s privacy via covert surveillance programs as in the public service, and yes, this despite the “war on terror”. Mr. Gonzales is widely regarded as having likely perjured himself to protect his mentor. If true, does he regard this as “honorable, and noble”?

Gonzales’s contemptuous disregard for US citizen’s rights while he served a rogue executive power is, unfortunately, not all we are concerned with here. When, as White House counsel to President Bush, Alberto Gonzales suggested Bush find a way to circumvent the Geneva Convention’s international law against the war crime of torture, Gonzales impugned the most basic rights of all human beings. Policies like these that attempt to justify war crimes (because we have a right to do it, although they never do) are extremely destructive to the interests of Americans, too. They undermine national security, and erode our humanity at a basic level.

International laws and treaties that prohibit aggression and prohibit torture are not negotiable. They cannot be violated by any sane, reasonable men. Those who believe that the US, in its magnificence, has a right to flagrantly violate the “Supreme Law of the Land” (Mr. Bush’s attorneys have argued that the president has the authority to do just that) reveal a staggering arrogance and hypocrisy. Mr. Gonzales’s memo is but one example.

I address the final part of this entry to former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Mr. Gonzales, in your farewell speech you discussed your humble, blue collar background. I can understand and relate to this. You stated that your worst day as US Attorney General was better than your father’s best day as a construction worker.

I doubt, Mr. Gonzales, that your father ever suggested or facilitated measures which would make the US exempt from international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, the “Supreme Law of the Land.” Such laws recognize the all too evident human capacity for horrific behavior and atrocities, and thus must apply to all people and all nations. No exceptions.

The results of such arrogance and foolishness are now, unfortunately, quite evident. And unfolding as we speak. Thus, Mr. Gonzales, I suggest it is obvious that your best day in public service was far worse than your father’s worst day as a construction worker.