To call the resignation of Alberto Gonzales as US attorney-general overdue seems barely adequate. From the outset, he was the most delinquent and incompetent holder of that vital office in living memory. Yet to the end, President George W. Bush seemed blithely unaware of Mr Gonzales’ limitations, calling him “a man of integrity, decency and principle” who was “impeded from doing important work as his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons”. One can only hope Mr Bush was insincere, wishing to show kindness to a humiliated friend. If those remarks really do express the president’s understanding of the matter, his incapacity to learn from mistakes is indeed boundless.

The main criticism to make of Mr Gonzales is not that he put loyalty to the president above his obligations to the constitution. The office of attorney-general calls for a difficult balancing act: the problem of divided loyalties goes with the job. Mr Gonzales’ great failure was in offering his political master not loyalty but blind, sycophantic obedience. He offered no challenge or effective counsel, as the interests of the president and the country both required. As Mr Gonzales reduced his office to that of legal echo-chamber, the administration advanced indefensible claims of unchecked authority over the treatment of detainees, secret domestic surveillance and broader civil liberties. Far from strengthening the presidency and supporting national security, these failed initiatives have undermined both. Mr Gonzales let his beloved president down, as well as the country.