Politics & Power Quote by Alberto Gonzales

Praise for the press, delivered with the careful diction of someone who knows the press is also a threat. Gonzales builds the sentence like a permission slip: "I respect" repeated, "very much" and then "very, very helpful" - a double intensifier that sounds warm but functions as padding, the verbal equivalent of putting a cushion between himself and the point. The compliment is real enough to be quotable, but also conveniently vague. Helpful how? To whom?

The core move is to define journalism in the least inflammatory, most civics-textbook terms possible: a "useful check", a "watchdog". Those metaphors flatter the institution while narrowing its job description. A watchdog barks at intruders; it doesn't rewrite the rules of the house. By framing the media as a supplement to government accountability rather than a disruptive force, Gonzales signals a preference for contained adversarialism: critique that stays within the boundaries of legitimacy as he understands it.

Context matters because Gonzales isn't a disinterested admirer. As Attorney General in the Bush era, he became a central figure in fights over executive power, surveillance, interrogation policy, and the politicization of the Justice Department - precisely the areas where investigative reporting can turn from "helpful" to existential. In that light, the quote reads as preemptive positioning: an attempt to occupy the pro-press high ground while implicitly reserving the right to label specific coverage as irresponsible, unpatriotic, or obstructive. It's a classic Washington balancing act: endorse the principle of scrutiny, then domesticate it.