Editorial: Gonzales offers lesson
October 12, 2009
Alberto Gonzales knows a few things about political tempests, and when he looks back with fondness at his days working in Texas state government alongside a wildly popular Republican governor, then you know things have gotten seriously out of whack in the nation's capital.
The former U.S. attorney general, in remarks delivered this past week to the Rotary Club of Amarillo, often was at the center of some serious political storms while working in Washington. He left office in 2007 a good bit chastened over his role in the firing of federal prosecutors, not to mention the conduct of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But his recollections of the good old days in Austin should make one long for such a time in Washington.
"Sure, we had our differences" in state government, Gonzales said of his time serving as counsel to Gov. George W. Bush, "but we were always civil." He noted how the Republican governor worked well with the late Democratic Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and Democratic House Speaker Pete Laney, who, Gonzales noted, "is from just down the road, in Hale Center."
Washington is a "much different place," said the now-Texas Tech University professor.