January 9, 2009 6:39 PM

Can Someone Please Give Alberto Gonzales a Job?

Posted by Brian Baxter

Almost a year-and-a-half has passed since his resignation in August 2007 and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales still is having a hard time finding gainful employment. (Hat Tip: Legal Blog Watch.)

According to the Austin American-Statesmen, the former AG thinks the economy is to blame for his tenuous employment status.

"It's a rough economy right now, and it's a tough time for a lot of law firms right now," Gonzales said in an interview with the newspaper, in which he also touted a tell-all book he plans to write about his experience in the Bush administration.

"Obviously [firms] are very careful about bringing on new people, and they are going to be careful about bringing on people where there are questions about things that may have happened in their past," Gonzales said. "Over time, I'm confident those things will be resolved, and things will work themselves out."

Carolyn Elefant, a Legal Blog Watch blogger and well-regarded solo practitioner from Washington, D.C., writes that Gonzales's talk about the economy seems to be somewhat delusional.

To Elefant, it's not economic indicators that are keeping Gonzales off the payroll of some Am Law 100 firm, but rather his political beliefs.

"[M]any of the nation's top firms, where Gonzales presumably hoped for employment, are also representing Guantanamo detainees in habeas proceedings," she writes. "Given Gonzales's approach to detainees while at [the Justice Department], it's not surprising that these firms wouldn't feel comfortable working with him."

We agree with Elefant that the economy likely has nothing to do with Gonzales's job situation. But we also can't help but wonder whether Gonzales, who once held the highest-ranking position in federal government ever by a Hispanic, might be the victim of some unfair scapegoating.

While Gonzales was undoubtedly a poor AG, other former Bush administration lawyers equally criticized for their government service, like John Yoo, and the admittedly far less controversial predecessor to Gonzales as AG, John Ashcroft, haven't been pushed to the fringes of the profession the way Gonzales has.

Having previously served as a partner at Vinson & Elkins, Gonzales clearly has the intellectual capacity for the position. Perhaps firms that are interested in Gonzales are merely waiting for the former AG's legal troubles to go away.

We certainly hope so, as it's painful to watch a man whose appointment was once hailed as a breakthrough for racial barriers in Washington's pre-Obama age ruminate publicly about what could have been and might still be.

"I'm optimistic by nature. And I'm going to take this experience and things that I've learned and hopefully be a productive member of our community," the ex-AG told the American Statesmen. "I've had some people say I'm very fortunate that I'm at a point in my life where if I wanted to do something completely different--be baseball commissioner, for example, I would love a job in baseball, a plug there--I can do it."

F. Scott Fitzgerald said there were no second acts in American lives, but we've always believed in second chances.

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