[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 2, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5492-S5493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, when I was a young law student at 
Georgetown, the event that stands out the most in my memory was a 
morning that I and a few other young law students working at various 
agencies for the summer had with the then Attorney General. It was 
Attorney General Robert Kennedy. In that meeting, he stressed to us 
over and over again the professionalism of the Department of Justice 
and how the professionals had to stay out of any kind of partisan 
politics and that he would insist upon it.
  I was inspired by that meeting. I think it probably shaped my 
decision to go into public life more than any other single meeting I 
had.
  I ask unanimous consent that an article in today's USA Today by 
Ronald Goldfarb entitled ``Crossing the Line at Justice'' be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From USA Today, Wednesday, May 2, 2007]

                       Crossing a Line at Justice

                          (By Ronald Goldfarb)

       The current agonies of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales 
     call to mind a dramatic moment in the Robert F. Kennedy 
     Justice Department. Members of his organized crime section 
     were in RFK's office reviewing our pending investigations and 
     cases. One of our group advised Kennedy that his grand jury 
     investigations were about to lead to the indictment of the 
     then-mayor of a large Midwestern city, one that had voted for 
     his brother John Kennedy in the close presidential election 
     of 1960.
       When my colleague completed his report about the big scalp 
     about to be added to our list of political corruption cases, 
     RFK was quiet. It happened that the scalp in question 
     belonged to President Kennedy's ambassador-designate to 
     Greece. The attorney general smiled slightly and facetiously 
     remarked: ``Well, that's nice. Now my brother's going to have 
     to put me on the Supreme Court.'' The indictment went forward 
     and included others in the city's political (Democratic) 
     machine. All were convicted.
       That anecdote is relevant today as the Senate Judiciary 
     Committee considers the attorney general's recent dismissals 
     of several U.S. attorneys. When it comes to the proper 
     administration of justice in the Department of Justice, there 
     are politics and there are politics.


                              the two p's

       Capital ``P'' politics--that is, party politics, such as 
     the partisan personal shenanigans of Gonzales meddling with 
     the independence of competent prosecutors' discretion in 
     response to political pressures--are improper and have no 
     place in the justice system. Small ``p'' politics, the 
     imposition of discretionary preferences, policies and 
     priorities in the focus of prosecutorial discretion, 
     generally are proper. Partisans must accept them, like it or 
     not. They are not the basis for replacing attorneys general.
       The distinction is important. When the Justice Department 
     that I served in during the Kennedy administration came to 
     office, ``political'' priorities changed. The internal 
     security division, active and robust during the Eisenhower 
     administration when loyalty was a major concern, was de-
     emphasized and eventually was deactivated. The organized 
     crime and the civil rights sections, small and quiet in 
     earlier years, grew into major centers of departmental work 
     and were the centerpiece of RFK's regime. That kind of 
     priority setting is proper.
       Administrations come to office offering change. Like these 
     changes or not, people cannot claim they involve improper 
     politics. Critics have the right to change administrations 
     with their votes in subsequent elections. Had Al Gore been 
     elected, no doubt environmental prosecutions would have taken 
     front and center in the department's efforts.
       After Sept. 11, 2001, homeland security would have been any 
     attorney general's special interest, RFK's included. So if 
     one deplores the values and priorities of the John Ashcroft 
     and Gonzales administrations at Justice, USA Patriot Act 
     excesses and the like, the recourse will be at the 2008 
     voting machines.
       On the other hand, capital ``P'' party politics have no 
     place in any Justice Department. That is the unique 
     indictment of Gonzales, and one that should lead to his 
     replacement. All attorneys general face political pressure to 
     act against their parties' political enemies and to protect 
     their friends. Those are the moments of truth for all 
     attorneys general, the one that Gonzales failed, to the 
     embarrassment of even his own party representatives.


                              rfk's tests

       When RFK was attorney general, two comparable moments stand 
     out in my memory. In one, his notorious father's long-time 
     attorney--James Landis, ``a virtual member of the immediate 
     family,'' according to one biography--was charged with 
     failing to file his tax returns for five years. Immense 
     pressures were put on Kennedy to find an excuse not to indict 
     the aging and prestigious former Harvard law dean. RFK stayed 
     out of the decision-making process, and Landis pleaded guilty 
     and received a brief incarceration. But for his close 
     association with the Kennedys, Landis probably would not have 
     suffered so. Everyone wanted to help Landis, but they were 
     super self-conscious about the propriety of doing so.
       A similar moment arose when an investigation showed that 
     the brother of the influential congressman from New York, 
     Eugene Keogh, had abused his office as a New York state 
     supreme court judge. Kennedy agonized over the political 
     pressures on him; he worried that the not open-and-shut case 
     might not be winnable, after major political embarrassment to 
     Kennedy loyalists. To his credit, Keogh told Kennedy he knew 
     he'd do the right and fair thing. The attorney general's 
     aides pressed him to do what he'd do in any other non-
     political case. Judge J. Vincent Keogh was indicted and 
     convicted. That is the only way an attorney general can keep 
     the balance of justice even and credible.
       Gonzales needed aides who spoke to him with comparable 
     candor and rectitude. Instead, he is falling on his sword 
     over the U.S. attorney firings that he administered without 
     knowing, as he has testified, much about them at the time. 
     Like former vice presidential aide Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby in 
     the Valerie Plame leak case, others set the political process 
     in motion, and the loyal aide did the deed and took the rap. 
     The Senate should not stop at Gonzales' actions, but should

[[Page S5493]]

     press to find out who pressured him to take these 
     unconscionable actions.
       Ashcroft supermoralistically draped the body of the 
     department's statue of justice to hide her contours; Gonzales 
     amoralistically tore off her blindfold. Both diminished the 
     prestige of an important government agency.

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