Gonzales: I'm a 'Casualty' of the War on Terror

Surprise, surprise. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is writing a book.

Any publishing takers out there?

This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. After all, that seems to be the route of choice for any former White House official looking to right the wrongs done to him or her on the job (You out there, Scott McClellan?)

Gonzales' book likely will include all of his reasons as to why he considers himself much the victim in a list of items the Bush administration was pilloried for during his time working in it - torturing prisoners, the U.S. attorneys firings, whether the Justice Department became more politicized under his direction, etc... If his Tuesday interview with The Wall Street Journal is any indication, he will also paint himself as one who didn't have a central role in drafting controversial legal opinions involving the War on Terror, and will point the finger at others who haven't taken quite the fall that he is.

"For some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror," Gonzales told the WSJ.

That comparison, of course, is providing fodder for the blogosphere.

"You cannot make stuff like this up. The guy who could not remember what he had for breakfast while being grilled by Congress, is writing a book to set the record straight," writes one Talking Points Memo blogger.

Looking back, how would he assess Bush's post-9/11 interrogation and antiterrorism policies?

"Mistakes were made by me and others. But how successful we were, the measure of that is whether we've been attacked again, and we haven't. That's a very good measure of the policies.

"As a lawyer, people have this misperception that we as lawyers were responsible for creation of policies that they don't like. [After the Sept. 11 terror attacks] The president asked the FBI, the CIA to tell us what we need to do to prevent another attack. They turned to the lawyers and asked can we do it."

And then there's the nasty rumor that in 2004, perhaps Gonzales and Andy Card tried to take advantage of an ailing John Ashcroft. While at then-Attorney General Ashcroft's bedside, Deputy Attorney James Comey's refused to reauthorize a a classified government intelligence program. Gonzales and Card then drove to the hospital themselves, allegedly, to force Ashcroft's hand. Gonzales said Comey's characterization of the spat was "one-sided." It was later reported that Gonzales made the trip to the hospital at Bush's request.

"I am very comfortable with the testimony I gave to Congress. The concerns were about other intelligence activities. They weren't about the Terrorist Surveillance Program. I can't talk about what it was."

"I found Ashcroft as lucid as I've seen him at meetings in the White House. We had no intention of making the attorney general do anything."

Click here to read more of the WSJ interview interview.