Former AG Gonzales Turns Reflective in Magazine’s Meaning of Life Issue
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales reflected on what’s important and what he would have done differently in a magazine’s meaning-of-life issue.
“This may sound egotistical, but to me it is important that when I leave this earth, I would have made a difference—that people would know Al Gonzales lived, he touched lives, he made a difference, he left a mark,” Gonzales told Esquire magazine.
Gonzales was one of about 20 people interviewed about weighty matters for the magazine’s January issue, according to the Washington Post.
Gonzales is teaching a political science class at Texas Tech in Lubbock. His time in the attorney general’s office was marked by controversy over his role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys and his defense of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism.
Gonzales told Esquire it was “cool” to work at the White House.
“I think 90 percent of what happened to me is politics, pure and simple. It’s tough to knock out a president. But if you can get someone who is viewed as close to the president, then that may be a good thing,” he said.
“At the end of the day, you realize that this is important stuff, but it isn’t as important as how my kids feel about me. That’s how I’m going to measure my success—not how I did as counsel to the president or as attorney general. How did I do as a dad?”
Gonzales said former President George W. Bush called him on his first day of class at Texas Tech. He considers Bush a friend, “although I will say, I’ve never called him George. It was always Governor or Mr. President.”
In retrospect, Gonzales said, “We should have abandoned the idea of removing the U.S. attorneys once the Democrats took the Senate. Because at that point we could really not count on Republicans to cut off investigations or help us at all with investigations.”
He said it’s not really productive to second-guess his decisions in government. “Wouldn’t it be nice if all of those of us in public service, because we served the American people, could go back and correct the mistakes we made?”
Prior coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Ex-AG Gonzales Defends US Attorney Firings and Presidential Loyalty”
