Gonzales plans annual attorney reviews to discuss politicians' complaints
 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales plans annual evaluations of US attorneys including a way to discuss grievances from politicians.
"If that should happen," writes Andrew Zajac in an editorial for the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, "expect the fair-mindedness and independence Americans still count on from their Justice Department to slip."
"At least once a year every United States attorney is going to sit down with either myself or the deputy attorney general, and we're going to have a very candid conversation about issues and problems in their districts," Gonzales told the House Judiciary Committee last month. "If I've heard of complaints from a member of Congress, it gives me an opportunity or the deputy attorney general an opportunity to tell the U.S. attorney what we're hearing."
"In testimony to Congress and comments at the National Press Club, Gonzales framed the meetings as a way of improving communications," writes Zajac. But he argues the performance reviews would further politicize the Justice Department.
"It also looks a lot like a way to remind recalcitrant U.S. attorneys what the home team expects," he says.
Excerpts follow:
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Whatever Gonzales does to review prosecutors' performances will, by design, be murky, in the interests of maximizing executive power, the attorney general has indicated.
"If you have a more formal process, and a U.S. attorney gets a great evaluation, politically it may be more difficult for the president to make a change simply because he wants to make a change," Gonzales told the National Press Club on May 15. "A president should be able to do that."
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There's a "process" to tell prosecutors what they're doing wrong. But nothing that would impede dismissing them for any reason.
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READ THE FULL CHICAGO TRIBUNE EDITORIAL HERE
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