FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Farai Chideya.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced earlier today that he's going to step down from the Justice Department effective September 17th.
Attorney General ALBERTO GONZALES (U.S. Department of Justice): I often remind our fellow citizens that we live in the greatest country in the world, and that I have lived the American dream. Even my worse days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days.
Public service is honorable and noble. And I am profoundly grateful to President Bush for his friendship and for the many opportunities he has given me to serve the American people. Thank you, and God bless America.
CHIDEYA: Gonzales led the Justice Department for two and a half years. But his tenure has been marred by a series of scandals, including the firings of U.S. attorneys and allegations of political hiring inside the department's Civil Rights Division.
For more, we have NPR's Dina Temple-Raston.
Dina, welcome.
DINA TEMPLE-RASTON: Thank you very much.
CHIDEYA: So Gonzales wasn't running Justice that long but he's clearly left his mark. What is going to be his legacy?
TEMPLE-RASTON: Unfortunately, I think these controversies are going to be his legacy. Not just his role in helping craft the Patriot Act but problems with domestic surveillance. You will recall that there was this very dramatic hospital room meeting with John Ashcroft in which he tried to get him to sign off a wireless - warrantless wiretaps. And finally, the mass firing, as you mentioned, of the U.S. attorneys for what looks like political reasons.
All these together, I think, are going to end up making the Gonzales legacy.
CHIDEYA: Recently, Gonzales said that he was going to stick with this for the long haul. Is Washington surprised by this departure?
TEMPLE-RASTON: It's interesting because we have all been sort of putting bets on how long it would be before Gonzales actually left. And they seemed to have been adopting a ropey-dope type of strategy in which they were just going to let him get pummeled by his critics until they finally exhausted themselves.
So in that respect, I think we're kind of surprised that this announcement was made. And for Washington, what's amazing is that it was actually Gonzales resigned on Friday and they were able to keep this quiet until first thing this morning. So that's pretty amazing for Washington.
CHIDEYA: Going along with what you were just talking about, the president harshly criticized Gonzales' detractors.
President GEORGE W. BUSH: It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeding from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.
CHIDEYA: Who exactly is the president referring to as doing the dragging through the mud?
TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, it's interesting because you can't really say that this was completely a partisan, which is what he was implying. It wasn't just Democrats. There were a lot of Republicans who were very upset with Gonzales, particularly in the way that he testified before Congress, it seemed that every time he said something, there was some sort of hedge or dodge that he was using that he got caught in.
I mean, Arlen Specter is a Republican and he was as harsh a critic of Gonzales as any Democrat was.
CHIDEYA: President Bush has not yet named Gonzales' official successor but Solicitor General Paul Clement is going to be acting attorney general. Who are the other likely candidates, if not Clement?
TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, there are actually quite a number of people being bandied about. They like to do this in Washington in which they float names as trial balloons to see what the reaction will be before they actually put the name out.
Right now, it seems like the frontrunner is the chief of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. He used to be a Justice Department official. He has a good reputation within the department. And he seems to be well liked on Capitol Hill. That said, he took over DHS just before Katrina happened and he's been tarred with the lack of recovery effort brush there. And he was also involved with the immigration debate and he's got a black mark there, too.
So it will be interesting to see if they actually end up putting his name up. I think we're going to hear a name fairly soon. I don't think they're going to drag this out.
CHIDEYA: Senator Patrick Leahy, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had been putting considerable pressure on Gonzales regarding the U.S. attorney issue. Now, is that pressure to disclose going to continue despite Gonzales' resignation?
TEMPLE-RASTON: Absolutely. I don't think we're going to see that stop at all. They've got traction on Capitol Hill for this particular issue. And I think they're going to keep pushing it. I mean, you recall that many of the people that they have called up before the Senate Judiciary Committee are people who have already resigned from the administration. So the fact that Gonzales has done that really, I don't think, will affect the hearings very much.
CHIDEYA: Well, Dina, thanks so much for the update.
TEMPLE-RASTON: My pleasure.
CHIDEYA: That was NPR's FBI correspondent Dina Temple-Raston.
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