Gonzales seen as politicizing Justice Dept

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Not since the Watergate scandal more than 30 years ago has the U.S. Justice Department been as politicized as under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, current and former officials said.

They said the department's integrity has been damaged, employee morale has been hurt and Gonzales' relations with the Democratic-controlled Congress have deteriorated beyond repair in a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers, including some Republicans.

Several senators said last month they had lost confidence in Gonzales and his ability to head the Justice Department, accusing him of misleading and possibly false testimony about his firing of nine U.S. prosecutors last year and the Bush administration's warrantless spying program.

Daniel Metcalfe, who resigned in January after serving as head of the department's Office of Information and Privacy since 1981, said Gonzales, the nation's highest-ranking Hispanic official, has become an embarrassment.

"Gonzales has shattered the Justice Department's tradition of independence and has politicized its operations more than any other attorney general since the Watergate era," said Metcalfe, who began working at the agency in 1971.

"The department badly needs a Watergate-style repair with a new attorney general who can restore its integrity and cease this process of ever-increasing damage to its reputation," said Metcalfe, now a law professor at American University.

John Koppel, a civil appellate attorney at the department since 1981, said last month in The Denver Post that the agency and the government have been thoroughly politicized. He called it "a national disgrace of a magnitude unseen since the days of Watergate."

Koppel wrote, "It is especially unheard of for U.S. attorneys to be targeted and removed on the basis of pressure and complaints from political figures dissatisfied with their handling of politically sensitive investigations and their unwillingness to 'play ball'."