gonzales was a symptom, not the cause

So Alberto Gonzales is going to resign. Good riddance. His lack of scruple was matched only by his lack of qualifications, save one - his utter loyalty to George W. Bush, the de facto President.

But don't think that Gonzales' resignation changes anything. It doesn't. Gonzales didn't make the decisions to implement the Great US Attorney Massacre in order to make attorneys conduct more overtly political prosecutions against Democrats, and to use the powers of the Department of Justice and other branches of the US government to suppress the vote along likely Democrats. It was the White House.

Gonzales wrote opinions justifying torture, but the decision was with the White House.

Gonzales argued for warrantless wiretaps and other intrusions without demonstrating cause into the lives of American citizens. But the decision was with the White House.

Gonzales doesn't have the basic wit to do any of this. He is the quintessential empty suit, with a pleasingly Spanish sounding name so he could double as a demonstration of Republican "diversity." But he was the quintessential "yes-man", unwilling to say NO to anything, no matter how immoral, illegal, or unconstitutional.

He was a symptom of the infection of the US body politic by extremist elements on the far right of the Republican Party. A symptom, not the cause.