In what must be a collective relief for both the nation and the Bush administration, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned today. Ever since Gonzales was announced to be the Bush appointee for the position vacated by John Ashcroft, he has been beleaguered by scandal after scandal. In honor of Gonzales' resignation, let us take a look at his failure in office:

The Torturing "Yes-Man"

In nominating Alberto Gonzales to be the next attorney general, President Bush has selected a man with a long record of giving him the kind of legal advice he wants. Unfortunately, that advice has not always been of the highest professional or ethical caliber.

Gonzales is perhaps best known for a controversial January 2002 memorandum to the president in which he argued that Geneva Convention proscriptions on torture did not apply to Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners, and that the conventions are, in fact, "obsolete."

The main criticism about Gonzales coming before his nomination was the fact that Gonzales seemed less concerned with the law than his loyalty to Bush. Cronyism in the Bush administration has been rampant, and Gonzales seemed to expound upon this trend. For an Administration that has shown contempt to dissent, having an Attorney General unwilling to uphold the law against what might be antithetical to the Bush agenda was a real concern for lawmakers in Congress--and for good reason.

Secondly, Gonzales' "torture memo" painted a clear picture of how Gonzales felt about the controversial interrogation methods pushed by the Bush administration. With the Attorney General standing in favor of these methods, Bush would have had little opposition to maintaining the controversial tactics, despite violating basic human rights and previous international agreements.

Perjury and Warrantless Wiretaps

The allegations of perjury leveled by Senate Democrats this week against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales revolve around the varied recollections concerning a deeply controversial and once top secret surveillance program.

In sworn congressional testimony on multiple occasions, the attorney general said there was no internal dissent among administration officials about the program and the surveillance was not at the center of a tense meeting in March 2004. Starkly different accounts have emerged of the same events and discussions.

When knowledge of Bush's warrantless wiretap program surfaced, Gonzales was quickly thrown into the fray because of allegations that he helped to orchestrate the highly questionable program. Gonzales constantly impeded the progress of the investigation into the program, and even went as far as to perjure himself on the circumstances of the program. In one hearing, Gonzales repeated some variation of "I don't remember" at a comedic rate.

Whether or not Congressional investigators pursue Gonzales for perjury is yet to be seen, as that his resignation changes the circumstances. One can only hope that if indeed the head of the justice system is found to be lying under oath, proper action will follow.

Denial of Habeas Corpus

One of the Bush administration's most far-reaching assertions of government power was revealed quietly last week when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified that habeas corpus -- the right to go to federal court and challenge one's imprisonment -- is not protected by the Constitution.

"The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas,'' Gonzales told Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 17.

Gonzales acknowledged that the Constitution declares "habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless ... in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.'' But he insisted that "there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution.''

One can always decry the subversive attacks to the Constitution from Cheney or Bush; however, none come as blatantly as Gonzales' denial of the right to habeas corpus, or rather the right to defend yourself against charges in a public court. The fact that a U.S. attorney, nonetheless the head U.S. attorney, would admit to such a thing has legal experts and American citizens confounded.

For the head of the U.S. legal system to deny the right of habeas is by far the most disgusting affront to liberty and freedom Americans had seen from an Administration dogged by allegations of Constitutional infringements.

The Firings of Eight U.S. Attorneys

The testimony appeared to contradict statements Gonzales made during a March 13 news conference. "So far as I knew, my chief of staff was involved in the process of determining who were the weak performers," Gonzales said. He said he was "not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on."

New York Sen. Charles Schumer, one of the panel's leading Democrats in the investigation, said, "The credibility of the attorney general on this issue has been more or less shattered."

One of the final blows to the credibility of Gonzales was his contradicting role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Many claim that since the attorneys serve at the behest of the president, he may do with them as he wishes. However, firing U.S. attorneys for political reasons is illegal, and this is what many in Congress allege to be the motivation behind the firings. Gonzales claims that the firings were all done based upon performance, despite the majority of these attorneys having positive performance reports from previous reviews.

All in all, Gonzales' stint as Attorney General was one train wreck after another. Gonzales seemed to care little about the Constitution and maintaining law within the United States. Instead, this Bush crony sidestepped the law in order to preserve and progress the President's agenda. In light of his firing, I think the U.S. can breath a collective sigh of relief.

Gonzales represented the disastrous consequences of appointing a patsy to a position of power, and the attempt to protect his agenda through such methods blew up in Bush's face. Because of Gonzales' contempt for truth or justice, his intimate ties to the Bush administration have left Americans even more suspicious of their government.

At least with his departure, our civil liberties are a little bit safer for now.