WASHINGTON — Alberto Gonzales, who has kept a low profile since resigning as attorney general nearly 16 months ago, said he is writing a book to set the record straight about his controversial tenure as a senior official in the Bush administration.

It’s a miracle! Though he has not yet found a publisher, Gonzales has found a cure for the debilitating, buffoonish strain of amnesia he contracted while hard at work overseeing the politicization of the Justice Department and drafting memos to justify torture (his role in which, according to the Journal, Gonzales now downplays).

It’s called unemployment.

The Harvard Law School graduate, onetime corporate lawyer and Texas judge also hasn’t been able to land a job. He has delivered a few paid speeches, done some mediation work and plans to do some arbitration, but said law firms have been “skittish” about hiring him.

Gee, I can’t imagine why.

One has to wonder how much Gonzales can really say about his various controversies without possibly opening himself up to perjury charges after he denied having any recollection of much of his tenure as attorney general during congressional hearings. He is a lawyer, after all, so we can probably expect another boring, self-serving book.

Also worth noting: During his interview with the Journal, Gonzales took the opportunity to pity himself.

Mr. Gonzales said that “for some reason, I am portrayed as the one who is evil in formulating policies that people disagree with. I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror.”

If so, that’s probably one casualty we can all live with.