AG Alberto Gonzales (Stephen Voss)
Embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a gathering of his colleagues in Atlanta on Thursday that he would complete his term in office, using his final 18 months to fight online child predators and to push to make background checks on gun buyers more current.
The nation's top prosecutor, mired in a political crisis over the dismissal of federal prosecutors, got a round of chuckles from about 40 state attorneys general at a national convention in a Buckhead hotel when he said that it was "good to be outside of Washington, D.C."
He made no reference to the battle swirling over his job but said his "personal attention" would be devoted to four areas of law enforcement that also included fighting terror and public corruption.
In remarks before members of the National Association of Attorneys General, Gonzales said the national gun background check failed in stopping a Virginia Tech student from buying a gun that he used to kill 32 students and faculty members in April before killing himself.
Seung-Hui Cho had been ordered to undergo mental health treatment and should have been barred from buying the two guns he used. But Virginia did not forward that information to the national background check system. Gonzales noted that most states were not forwarding this information.
"It's too easy for an individual who shouldn't have access to firearms to get firearms." Gonzales said.
He also said that tough penalties for online child predators, coupled with educating children on Internet safety, were key issues where he would devote his time.
Last week, the New York Times reported a Justice Department internal inquiry will determine whether Gonzales tried to influence a senior aide's testimony concerning the dismissal of federal prosecutors. This came after the Senate fell short of forcing a "no confidence" vote on Gonzales.
After the speech in Buckhead, he spoke for several minutes with David Nahmias, the U.S. attorney based in Atlanta, but he did not speak to the media.
Gonzales was the keynote speaker at the annual conference celebrating the National Association of Attorneys General's 100th anniversary. Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, the organization's outgoing president, greeted Gonzales. Baker is the organization's first black president.
Baker is in the midst of his own controversy. He appealed a judge's ruling that would have released Genarlow Wilson, who was given a 10-year prison sentence for receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. A judge this month ruled that the punishment was disproportionate to the act. Baker agreed the sentence was "harsh" but has appealed the judge's ruling saying he worried about other sex offenders being released.
This week's conference took note of state attorney generals' history of banding together to fight society's ills, displaying enlarged copies of newspaper articles from 1907 of their efforts to break up oil and railroad monopolies. In the past decade, attorneys general took on the tobacco industry and negotiated a multi-billion dollar settlement on behalf of the states.