Daniel Metcalfe, former director of the DOJ's office of Information and Privacy, has a few things to say about Gonzales.
Under Gonzales, though, almost immediately from the time of his arrival in February 2005, this changed quite noticeably. First, there was extraordinary turnover in the political ranks, including the majority of even Justice’s highest-level appointees. It was reminiscent of the turnover from the second Reagan administration to the first Bush administration in 1989, only more so. Second, the atmosphere was palpably different, in ways both large and small. One need not have had to be terribly sophisticated to notice that when Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey left the department in August 2005 his departure was quite abrupt, and that his large farewell party was attended by neither Gonzales nor (as best as could be seen) anyone else on the AG’s personal staff.
Third, and most significantly for present purposes, there was an almost immediate influx of young political aides beginning in the first half of 2005 (e.g., counsels to the AG, associate deputy attorneys general, deputy associate attorneys general, and deputy assistant attorneys general) whose inexperience in the processes of government was surpassed only by their evident disdain for it.
(snip)
The day that I decided to retire, for example, was one on which I was asked to participate in a matter in which a significant part of the department’s position was aiming to be — there’s no other word for it — false. Briefly stated, someone in the White House had determined that it would be a good idea for an op-ed piece on the subject of government secrecy to be prepared, and although its subject matter extended beyond the Justice Department’s jurisdiction in multiple respects, it was decided that the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs would take on that task nevertheless. I was perfectly able to make several corrections and substantive improvements to a last-minute draft that I received but drew a line at even attempting to “improve” a Defense Department-related paragraph within it that was incorrect by a full 180 degrees.
(snip)
Yes, it became quite clear that under Gonzales, the department placed no more than secondary value on the standards that I and my office had valued so heavily for the preceding 25 years — accuracy, integrity, responsibility, and quality of decision-making being chief among them. Had I stayed as director of OIP, I might have been working for a Monica Goodling protégé by now.
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