Alberto R. Gonzales, a longtime confidant and aide of President Bush, had resigned this year from the post of attorney general following the hullabaloo regarding the sacking of nine federal prosecutors by the Justice Department.
In spite of this controversy he has been bestowed a debatable honor. Gonzales has now been named Lawyer of the Year by the ABA Journal, a publication of the American Bar Association in its January 2008 issue, the same journal that has disagreed with the Bush administration on a number of matters. It reasons that he has been the most prominent newsmaker in the legal world of 2007.
Besides quoting the “slow-motion destruction” of Gonzales, the ABA Journal also predicted that Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, his successor, could be Lawyer of the Year in 2008 while he attempts to restore the reputation of the Justice Department.
ABA Journal’s editor and publisher, Edward A. Adams, has been quoted as saying that the award however, does not serve as a commentary on the effectiveness of Gonzales during his term as attorney general.
Says Adams, “It’s about who has had the most effect in the world of lawyers this year…We’re not saying Gonzales is good or bad. We’re just saying this is the leading newsmaker in our part of the world.”
It was pointed out that the decision to draw attention to Gonzales and Mukasey was not made by ABA but by the magazine’s journalists.
The Justice Department which is investigating allegations of perjury and witness tampering against Gonzales made no comment on the award.