W&L alum criticizes Bush administration's tactics
Photo by Jessica Simmons
Jack Goldsmith, the former chief of the Justice Department's office of legal counsel, returned to his alma mater Monday evening to speak about about what he saw during his 10 months in the high-powered position, from 2003 to 2004. During his time in Washington, he was adviser to Attorney General John Ashcroft, who guided President Bush on legal issues.
Unilateral government is one mistake that Goldsmith believes the Bush administration has made. He said Bush has pursued a strategy of reducing the power of Congress and increasing the President's. Although Goldsmith believes future Presidents will be able to work more closely with Congress, he believes Bush has set a standard for mistrust of the executive branch's power.
"The damage can be undone, but the trust factor is going to be hard to fix," he said during his speech in Lee Chapel.
Goldsmith also spoke about newly appointed Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Goldsmith thinks Mukasey was “unduly criticized” for not commenting on whether he condoned waterboarding, a controversial form of torture. It would have been inappropriate, Goldsmith said, for Mukasey to have formed a public opinion on the issue when he did not yet understand the government’s complicated policy on the use of torture.
Goldsmith said he was not sure he would have taken the “painful" job if he knew when he accepted it what he knows now.
It was a stressful job and took him away from his family, he said.
Goldsmith speaks on what President Bush
could have done differently
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Brian Richardson
Reporting supervisors:
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd