That is why Christensen, a dedicated Ronald Reagan Republican, is worth listening to when he hangs his head in disgust over what is happening in his beloved Justice Department.

Christensen was already an established national legal figure when he went to the Justice Department as deputy attorney general in the spring of 1988. At the time, the department was in turmoil because of scandals surrounding Attorney General Edwin Meese III.

While never officially named acting attorney general, Christensen ran the Justice Department when Meese resigned that summer until Richard Thornburgh took the helm shortly thereafter. He remained deputy attorney general under Thornburgh until the following May, when he returned to private practice and teaching law at the University of Utah.

In an interview last week, Christensen lamented the political culture of this new century that rewards fealty to well-financed special interest groups above anything else - including the public good and the rule of law.

"The Justice Department is different than other cabinet positions. It has a dual role," he said. "In certain areas it is appropriate for the Justice Department to be as accommodating as possible to the White House. But in other areas, like prosecutions or appeals from lower court decisions, the Department of Justice traditionally is independent and should not be subject to political pressures."

That is why the apparent collaboration between the White House and the Justice Department in the firing last year of eight U.S. attorneys, allegedly for political reasons, has him so troubled.

The attorney general must not be tethered to the political skirts of the White House, Christensen said. But, he has observed, that is precisely the problem with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"He (Gonzales) might be a fine person, in fact I'm sure he is," says Christensen. "But he doesn't get it. His loyalty to the president has gotten in the way of his loyalty to the department and to justice."

The scandals engulfing Meese 20 years ago were mostly over his personal financial dealings, including allegations of tax avoidance. But they also involved Meese's performance as attorney general, including a report from his department that Oliver North acted alone in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Christensen came to the department after several high-level Justice officials had resigned in frustration because they felt the scandals were undermining the effectiveness of the department. Meese resigned after a special prosecutor reported there was not enough evidence to indict him. Meese said he wanted to wait until he was exonerated before he resigned.

Even amidst the turmoil, said Christensen, the Justice bureaucracy was focused on the tasks at hand and not hassled by fiats from the White House.

"If there were performance problems with a U.S. attorney, whatever disciplinary measures that eventually were imposed would first go through a process involving the (targeted) U.S. attorney and giving that person the opportunity to correct the problems," said Christensen. "That doesn't appear to be the case here."

Christensen said he never was pressured by Reagan, or by his two bosses in Justice - Meese and Thornburgh, to take any action or make any decision based on a political agenda.

The problem with Gonzales, he says, is that he came to Justice as a personal legal counselor and adviser to the president, rather than as a seasoned prosecutor independent of political strategists.