During the summer of 2005, I had the honor of being a Capitol Hill hanger-on during now-Chief Justice John Roberts’ Senate confirmation hearings.

With a group of experience communications professionals, I watched in amazement as Roberts gave his opening statement and then answered hours of questions without a single note or, indeed, piece of paper on the table before him. His testimony instantly became a legendary example of intellectual and rhetorical brilliance, and his confirmation swiftly became a foregone conclusion.

A few months later, I watched from a greater distance but with similar interest as now-Justice Alito managed nearly to match Roberts’ brilliance in both style and substance.

But in between, those of us who followed the judicial confirmation battles closely knew that there was a very real possibility that President Bush would nominate his Attorney General and long-time friend, Alberto Gonzales, to the Supreme Court seat that Alito eventually filled.

Both the Roberts and Alito hearings took place in the same large hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building – the same room, in fact where Attorney General Gonzales appeared yesterday to testify about his “decision” to dismiss eight United States Attorneys from various corners of the country.

Gonzales’ appearance demonstrated many things. But among the most interesting is the extent to which it revealed how totally unsuited and ill-equipped Gonzales would be for the spotlight of Supreme Court confirmation hearings. From both an intellectual and stylistic standpoint, Gonzales gets an “F”. And comparing him to Roberts or Alito just isn’t fair.

Indeed, along with many other things, Gonzales testimony yesterday illustrated just how laughable the notion of his nomination to the Supreme Court really was. It also revealed how thoroughly ill-prepared Gonzales would have been for the intellectual rigour of the Court.

Thank goodness Gonzales never had the chance to demonstrate his shortcomings in a Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Jim: Yeah, Alberto Gonzales represents one of the most depressing moments for those of us who wanted to see this administration succeed. He just seems in over his head; the “I didn’t figure out why I was firing these guys until after I fired them” defense sounds like a Saturday Night Live sketch.

Another somewhat disturbing aspect of all this - a few weeks ago I was speaking before a group of Republicans in South Carolina; the National Review editorial calling for Gonzales to step down was mentioned, and I said I agreed; it would be best for the Department of Justice and the country if AGAG moved on to something else in his life. The conversation grew a bit more heated, as several members of the audience adamantly insisted that the president has the right to fire any U.S. Attorney he wants for whatever reason he wants and has no obligation to disclose the reason to the public at large. I disagreed, and said that while I don’t have to like the reason, the president ought to at least give a reason for a firing. Several audience members concluded I was behaving as a media elite; I said they ought to think of me as a member of the public - and the president ought to give at least the most rudamentory reasons for personnel changes among public servants.

Another member of the audience insisted that this was nothing wrong, “it was the usual political patronage.” Am I nuts for thinking I don’t want too much political patronage in the positions of U.S. Attorneys? I’m sure the replacements were fine folks, but I tend to be a small-c conservative in this sense, that if somebody’s doing a good job in a position - particularly one as important as prosecutions and law enforcement - then don’t change things.

And one more observation - most of these changes occurred after the 2006 elections. If the White House staff didn’t realize that the Democratic Congress was going to be hunting for scalps, and that every move had to be scrutinized carefully to see how it could be used as a political weapon by the other side… then they don’t deserve to be running the White House.