Alberto Gonzales may have his problems. . .

. . .but George Will sounds a little like Joe Conason with an impacted bowel in his most recent column for Newsweek. Apparently, Will took great offense on behalf of Gonzales's father as a result of these words, spoken during his parting speech as he left the White House:

"Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days."

Will's response to this supposed rhetorical kick to the family jewels:

Well. His father married and had eight children—nine wonderful days, days even better, one would have thought, than any of the days his son spent floundering at the Justice Department. Furthermore, Gonzales's father had the fulfillment of a lifetime spent providing for his family. But what is any of that, Gonzales implies, compared with the satisfaction of occupying, however unsatisfactorily, a high office? This implicit disparagement of his father's life of responsibility and self-sufficiency turns conservatism inside out. It is going to take conservatism a while to recuperate from becoming associated with such people.

I wonder if Will stopped for a moment to think Gonzales might have been talking about his father's best day at work. Is it really impossible to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, at least on this point? Is it out of the realm of possibility that he innocuously neglected to append the words, "on the job" to his statement?
Despite Will's dyspeptic defense of him, I can imagine that Gonzales's father is proud that his son managed to achieve his way into the White House rather than spend South Texas summers as a construction worker in order to provide for his family. It seems entirely fair to conclude that Gonzales was simply acknowledging it and expressing his appreciation for the fact that he was able to do so; for his own sake, as well as his father's.