Alberto Gonzales, now at Belmont, relives Bush years

Sounds of car horns and tourists' voices floated up to the balcony overlooking the South Lawn.

Just a few months into his first term, President George W. Bush invited his White House counsel to visit the residence. The president and his top lawyer and friend, Alberto Gonzales, stood alone on the balcony without speaking.

Under blue skies, they looked out at the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial. After 45 seconds or so, Gonzales became uncomfortable.

"I felt like I should say something," he said. "The first thing that pops into my head is a stupid question."

Gonzales asked it anyway: "How does it feel to be president?"

The president laughed.

"It's really cool," he said.

They both laughed.

The tension broken, Gonzales got to appreciate the enormousness of the moment. Here was a Mexican kid from a poor part of Houston standing alone with the president of the United States of America.

Gonzales, now the dean of Belmont Law School, thought then that it was an incredibly rare moment with the commander in chief. But Gonzales didn't know how right he was.

"Sure enough after 9/11, those kind of moments just didn't happen because our whole world changed dramatically."

Impressive rise from humble beginnings

Born in Texas, Gonzales grew up the son of Mexican migrant farm workers, in a two-bedroom house with seven siblings. The boys slept in one bedroom, the girls in the other, and their parents slept in a bed in the living room.

They didn't have a telephone until Gonzales was in high school, and there was no running hot water. Gonzales would boil pots of water on the stove for his bath.

The boy loved school and, after enlisting in the Air Force, he ended up at the Air Force Academy before transferring to Rice University. After Harvard Law School, Gonzales launched a lucrative career in Houston at the prestigious law firm Vinson & Elkins.

He eventually became active in Hispanic affairs, in part, to help other poor Mexican boys like him.

George W. Bush came calling in 1994. Bush wanted to meet some minority leaders in Houston because he wanted to run for governor against popular incumbent Ann Richards.

"I remember listening to him and thinking, what a great guy."

Gonzales' second thought: "He has no chance of beating Ann Richards."

Two weeks after Bush beat Richards, Gonzales got a call about becoming general counsel for the governor-elect.

It was the second time a politician named Bush had come calling. In 1988, President George H.W. Bush staffers wanted Gonzales to join the administration. But Gonzales declined because he was on track to become the first minority partner at Vinson & Elkins.

Gonzales was more receptive to the Bush family this time around, but Gonzales had a question for the incoming governor: Why me?

"You turned down my old man for a job; that's how you got on my radar screen," then-Gov. Bush said.

The lawyer was blown away that George W. Bush would know that information and remember it.

Gonzales told his wife he would work for Bush for only a few years.

Seven years later, on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Gonzales, White House counsel at the time, flew out of Dulles International Airport to give a speech in Norfolk, Va. Since then, he has often wondered whether his path crossed with the terrorists who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

Several hours after the planes flew into the World Trade Center towers, Gonzales stood on the Oval Office porch with communications director Karen Hughes. Both watched Marine One land, saw President Bush get off the helicopter and walk toward them.

"The thought I had at the time was, here we go. This is why I became a lawyer. All the work, all my work in private practice and on the bench, all of it was for this moment, to advise this wartime president," Gonzales said.

The president and his top advisers gathered in his private dining room and the first thing they did was what the rest of the nation did: They compared notes on where they were when the second plane crashed into the towers.

Lessons of Washington

After Gonzales became attorney general in 2004, accusations against him and the Justice Department started flying.

Democrats said terrorist surveillance programs were misused. Some politicians suggested Gonzales lied to Congress under oath about National Security Agency surveillance programs. And critics were up in arms over seven U.S. attorneys getting fired, saying they were dismissed because the Bush administration thought those prosecutors were too tough on Republicans or not tough enough on Democrats in their districts.

Amid the accusations, Gonzales resigned in 2007.

"Do I think the attacks were unfair? Were they politically motivated? Yes," said Gonzales, adding multiple investigations concluded he did nothing wrong.

"But what I tell young students is, 'Don't go to Washington thinking you'll be treated fairly.' I tell them, 'Go in with your eyes open and your armor on.' Because it's hand-to-hand combat at times."

Gonzalez also has been accused, while White House counsel in 2002, of advocating and approving interrogation techniques that critics have called torture. A Belmont spokeswoman, in setting up this interview, said Gonzalez would not answer questions on that topic.

Gonzales says he has only gratitude for his years working for Bush.

"The controversy in no way takes away from the very fond feelings I have for my service and the pride that I have in what we accomplished. Not a bit."

Reach Brad Schmitt at 615-259-8384 and on Twitter @bradschmitt.

Alberto Gonzales in Nashville

• Job : Dean of Belmont Law School

• How he got it : Four or five years ago, Gonzales went with his son Graham to visit colleges, and Belmont was one stop. Shortly afterward, the university offered him a job at the law school. Now, Gonzalez has two sons and a wife taking classes at Belmont.

• Class he teaches: National Security Law

• On his desk : A replica "Star Wars" Hans Solo blaster gun, autographed by director George Lucas, which Lucas sent to the then-attorney general after Gonzales mentioned he's a huge "Star Wars" fan.

• Favorite place to take visitors : The Grand Ole Opry, where, among others, Gonzales has taken U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito

• Restaurants where he takes visitors: Monell's, The Loveless Cafe.