Analysis: Poster Boys for Bad Politics

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/05/16/politics/p132212D05.DTL&type=politics">Analysis: Poster Boys for Bad Politics

By RON FOURNIER (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
May 16, 2007 4:18 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -

Alberto Gonzales and Paul Wolfowitz could be poster boys for what's wrong with politics today -
cronyism, incompetence and a brazen lack of accountability that has voters craving change.

Gonzales is the Texas pal of President Bush who led the Justice Department into political
and legal trouble, then blamed subordinates and a bad memory. Wolfowitz is the unyielding
conservative who underestimated the difficulty of bringing Iraq to heel, and was rewarded
with a job at the World Bank that he quickly jeopardized with an ethical lapse.

Their heads may finally roll, but the public wants more than the dismissal of two failed
leaders. People want an entirely new brand of leadership in Washington - and they currently
don't see it in either major party.

"Does anybody run anything any more? Does anybody hold anybody accountable for anything?"
asked Republican consultant Joe Gaylord. He is one of a growing number of Democratic and
Republican officials in Washington worried about the health of their parties because of a
bipartisan failure of leadership. "It's a mystery to me as to why someone hasn't come down
with a two-by-four and said, 'Get this crap fixed.'"

Gaylord advises former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who may seek the 2008 GOP presidential
nomination. Democrats have their own problems, including leading presidential candidates
who seem to be pandering on Iraq, and House Democrats who are breaking election-year promises
on lobbying reform.

"People want really dramatic change from the current way politics works - the money, the
lobbying and the whole thing," said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, who advises
presidential candidate John Edwards. "The Democratic Party has to lead. For us to benefit,
we've got to lead the way on change - the different way to do things."

The public's faith in government has been declining for years, and took a steep dive in the
summer of 2005 when state, local and federal leaders responded poorly to Hurricane Katrina.
The Gulf Coast's slow recovery affirms the public's distrust of government.

An AP-Ipsos poll this month found that only 35 percent of the public approves of how the
Democratic-led Congress is handling its job, the same anemic rating given to President Bush.
Exit polls after last November's elections showed that while almost six in 10 voters
disapproved of the Iraq war, even more - 74 percent - said government corruption and scandals
were important to their votes.

"Washington is broken," Mitt Romney said Tuesday night, one of the many anti-Washington
voices raised at the second Republican presidential debate.

And that brings us back to Gonzales and Wolfowitz.

Under Gonzales, the FBI broke the law to secretly acquire personal data on Americans and the
Justice Department abruptly fired several U.S. attorneys. The latter act, while legal,
raised questions about whether the White House tried to use the nation's law enforcement arm
to cause legal problems for Democratic politicians.

Four senior Justice Department officials have resigned, and Gonzales has publicly made
scapegoats of two of them for the firings. His congressional testimony on the matter was a
marathon of dodged answers, foggy memories and blame-shifting that prompted some Republicans
to join Democrats in calling for his dismissal.

Things got worse Tuesday when lawmakers heard how far Gonzales would go to carry out President
Bush's orders.

As the White House's top lawyer in 2004, he went to the sickbed of then-Attorney General John
Ashcroft to pressure the ailing man to approve the legality of Bush's warrantless wiretapping
program. Ashcroft - critically ill with pancreatitis at the time - rebuffed Gonzales, according
to Jim Comey, the former No. 2 official at the Justice Department.

The White House went ahead with the program without Justice Department approval, Comey said.
Faced with the resignations of Comey, Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, Bush relented
and changed the program to address Justice's concerns.

"The American people deserve an attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of our
country, whose honesty and capability are beyond question," Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said
Wednesday. Hagel also is considering a presidential bid - perhaps as an independent.

He said Gonzales "has lost the moral authority to lead."

The same is being said of Wolfowitz after a World Bank committee found that he broke ethics
rules by arranging a large raise for his girlfriend. After allowing the controversy to simmer
for days, the White House signaled a willingness to see Wolfowitz go.

"This has certainly been a bruising episode for the bank," White House press secretary Tony
Snow said.

The Wolfowitz episode will eventually end - and so will the controversies surrounding Gonzales.
But the system in which these two men flourished will still be broken.

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Ron Fournier has covered politics for The Associated Press for nearly 20 years.