Americans call for resignation of Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales

Last week while researching the Democratic presidential candidate, I ran across a campaign site for John Edwards. Johnathon Prince the Senior Adviser for John Edwards for President had a petition he had activated calling for the immediate resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Johnathan was seeking signatures for his petition and is planning on presenting a copy of the U.S. Constitution with over 45,300 signatures asking Gonzales to resign his position. Below (starting w/ Dear Kelly…)is an e-mail Mr.Price sent to me.

The congressional committee that investigated Mr.Gonzales role in the firing of 9 federal prosecutors said to have not been loyal to all of Bush’s current policies found that Gonzales was found to be the most partisan Attorney General in the history of the Attorney General position and that he had politicized his position more than any other Attorney General since the Watergate era.

Several Senators on Capitol Hill have stated that, “They had lost confidence in Gonzales and his ability to head the Justice Department, accusing him of misleading and possibly false testimony about his firing of 9 U.S.prosecuters last year and the Bush administration’s warrentless spying program.” according to journalist for Reuters.com( The most popular and reputable internet news source) James Vicini.

According to this same news article posted on Yahoo news by Vicini to Reuters.com, “Daniel Metcalfe who resigned in January after serving as head of the department’s Office of Information and privacy since 1981, said Gonzales the nations highest ranking Hispanic Official, has become an embarrassment.

John Koppell, a civil appellate attorney at the department since 1981 wrote, ” it is especially unheard of for U.S. prosecutors to be targeted and removed on the basis of pressure and complaints from political figures dissatisfied with their- (the 9 fired prosecutors) handling of politically sensitive investigations and their unwillingness to ‘play ball’.” Monica Goodling, A former aide to Gonzales was fired after confessing that she had posed, ” political questions to job applicants for career, nonpartisan positions”.

I personally watched Mr. Gonzales give his testimony and was infuriated by his blatant disrespectful and smug demeanor toward the congressional committee. He responded with some version of, “I cannot recall”, or “I am not aware…” to almost every question and the few rare times he actually answered he repeatedly contradicted himself.

The Attorney General is one of those positions meant to check the powers of the president. It is designed to make sure that top officials in the administration are operating within the law and according to the will and best interest of the American people. Alberto Gonzales has completely disgraced this important, honorable position and greedily looked out for his own personal career advancement by allowing President Bush to dictate the decisions made by the Att. Generals office. This is not only a reprehensible conflict of interest but down right dishonest, immoral, and arrogant.

Dear kelly,

A few weeks ago, we asked you to join us in signing your name to our petition calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. We promised that if we received over 40,000 signatures, we would deliver a giant copy of the Constitution—with your signatures—to Gonzales to remind him of his constitutional obligations.

You are one of 45,307 supporters to sign your name—and we thank all of you who passed this along to friends and family. Over 5,100 of you are brand new to the campaign and we couldn’t be happier to welcome you!

Here’s the plan: Monday, September 17, 2007 is Constitution Day. It celebrates the day our Constitution was signed in 1787. We know it’s not the most famous national holiday, but we think it’s a perfect moment to remind Gonzales about his constitutional obligations as Attorney General. And what better way to celebrate it than to deliver an extra large copy of our Constitution, with all your signatures, directly to him!

We’re waiting for Washington officials to come back from vacation before we deliver our Constitution to Gonzales—a document we think he needs to read a few more times before vacating his office for good!

Here’s what you can do:

(1) Forward this email to coworkers, friends, bowling buddies, your book club and anyone else you can think of to help us reach 50,000 signatures.

(2) Keep your eyes peeled for an e-mail in the coming weeks spelling out the details of the delivery to Gonzales on Constitution Day in September.

It’s time we send Gonzales a message he can’t ignore. And he won’t be able to ignore this.

Thank you for all your support and hard work.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Prince
Senior adviser, John Edwards for President