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"  I guess I would use my son&amp;#039;s word: cool. It was cool to work in the White House. All the internal investigations are over with, no finding of wrongdoing, no finding that I misled Congress.* So I&amp;#039;m gratified by that, but I&amp;#039;m certainly not surprised by it. But anyway, it creates impressions. And yeah, it takes some time to work through that. And that&amp;#039;s what I&amp;#039;m trying to do now. Sometimes that can be a little bit discouraging, quite frankly, given that you&amp;#039;re looking at partner in a major firm, Harvard Law School graduate, general counsel to a governor, counselor to the president, secretary of state, state supreme court justice, attorney general of the United States. I&amp;#039;m proud of that record. I don&amp;#039;t believe my life&amp;#039;s work should be solely defined by four years in the White House and two years as attorney general. I really enjoyed my time in state government. I thought we made a difference. I liked being a part of that effort. I had a different experience in Washington. I used the word quaint in referring to provisions in the Geneva Conventions that require the signatories to provide the prisoners of war privileges like commissary privileges, scientific instruments, athletic uniforms. I think those provisions are quaint. I did not say nor did I intend to say that the basic principles of the Geneva Conventions in providing for humane treatment were quaint. So if I had to do it again, what I would not do is use the word quaint and the Geneva Conventions in the same sentence. The notion that what happened at Abu Ghraib was a result of the policies of the Bush administration I just think is totally ridiculous. You do the best you can, looking at precedent, in trying to anticipate where the Supreme Court is going to draw the balance between the protection of civil liberties and protecting the national security, and in some cases we guessed wrong. I think 90 percent of what happened to me is politics, pure and simple. It&amp;#039;s tough to knock out a president. But if you can get someone who is viewed as close to the president, then that may be a good thing. As far as I know, every time the president made a decision, the vice-president accepted it. Sometimes I feel like it seems presumptuous to say, &amp;quot;Yeah, he&amp;#039;s my friend.&amp;quot; I mean, I consider him a friend. Although I will say, I&amp;#039;ve never called him George. It was always Governor or Mr. President. He called me my first day of class here. First thing he said: &amp;quot;Hello, professor.&amp;quot; What do you mean, brood? You mean second-guess? No, I&amp;#039;m not sure how productive it is. I know that at the time I made the best decision I could with the information I had. Wouldn&amp;#039;t it be nice if all of those of us in public service, because we served the American people, could go back and correct the mistakes we made? At the end of the day, you realize that this is important stuff, but it isn&amp;#039;t as important as how my kids feel about me. That&amp;#039;s how I&amp;#039;m going to measure my success \u2014 not how I did as counsel to the president or as attorney general. How did I do as a dad? I&amp;#039;m very happy being here at Texas Tech. I very much believe in the mission of attracting more first-generation students, minority students, and veterans to college generally, and specifically here at Texas Tech. It&amp;#039;s a good place for me to be right now. This may sound egotistical, but to me it is important that when I leave this earth, I would have made a difference \u2014 that people would know Al Gonzales lived, he touched lives, he made a difference, he left a mark. I know there are households in this country where it was a big deal that someone named Gonzales was the attorney general of the United States. Of course the White House was consulted about these decisions, because these were presidential appointees, and of course Karl would have some kind of role in that. But the decision was made on what I believed to be the consensus recommendation of the department leadership. Senator Pryor said on the Senate floor that I lied to him. He said that on the Senate floor. And you look at the report, and there&amp;#039;s no indication, no finding at all, that I ever did any such thing. Has he ever gone on the Senate floor and said, &amp;quot;I was wrong about the statements I made about Al Gonzales&amp;quot;? Putting my lawyer hat aside, the notion that we&amp;#039;d have to get legalistic about torture, yeah, can be offensive to me. It&amp;#039;s inconsistent with American values. But as a lawyer \u2014 as a lawyer \u2014 you have to try to put meaning to the words passed by Congress. The media will say, &amp;quot;Al Gonzales said he didn&amp;#039;t know 120 times.&amp;quot; Well, oftentimes it&amp;#039;s because you get asked the same question, and the reason you get asked the question is because these senators are so busy \u2014 I guess they&amp;#039;re busy \u2014 and they leave the hearing room, so they don&amp;#039;t know the question has been asked. We should have abandoned the idea of removing the U. S. attorneys once the Democrats took the Senate. Because at that point we could really not count on Republicans to cut off investigations or help us at all with investigations. We didn&amp;#039;t see that at the Department of Justice. Nor did the White House see that. Karl didn&amp;#039;t see it. If we could do something over again, that would be it. *Editor&amp;#039;s note: A 2008 Department of Justice investigation was referred to a federal prosecutor and remains ongoing. RELATED LINKS:   EXCLUSIVE: Fired U.S. Prosecutor David Iglesias Speaks Out  A Look Back at the Bush Administration Is John Yoo a Monster? Obama Targets Jack Bauer, but Who Takes the Fall? FICTION: Three Lunches with Alberto Gonzales  PLUS: Read John H. Richardson&amp;#039;s Weekly Political Column   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/interviews/a6802/alberto-gonzales-torture-quotes-0110/>