Attorney general’s record impressive,

Freedom Editorial

We urge the U.S. Senate to carefully scrutinize the record of Alberto Gonzales, whom President Bush has nominated to succeed John Ashcroft as attorney general.

Gonzales has an impressive background, serving in Texas on the state Supreme Court and as secretary of state. He most recently has been counsel to Bush and held a similar post when the president was governor of Texas. He would be the first Latino to become attorney general.

But there are problems.

The first is his very closeness to the president. “Historically, the attorney general position has been somewhat differently filled than other Cabinet posts. It has been more tainted with partisanship,” said Gilbert Geis, professor emeritus of criminology at the University of California, Irvine. He mentioned Bobby Kennedy, who was appointed President Kennedy’s AG despite no experience practicing law and was “an enormous partisan.” Other highly partisan AGs included John Mitchell under Richard Nixon and Janet Reno under Bill Clinton.

“It’s strange,” Geis added, “because you would think this would be a less partisan position. You should have someone who is immediately accessible to both parties than immediately subject to criticism. There’s an old saying that ‘Not only must justice be done, but the appearance of justice must be done.’ He doesn’t meet that test for a position that ought to be squeaky clean.”

Then there is Gonzales’ position as White House counsel. He issued the now infamous Jan. 25, 2002 “Memorandum for the President” which stated that the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War “does not apply to the conflict with al-Qaida” or “to the Taliban,” meaning almost anyone the government declared was involved in the war on terror arbitrarily could be held in prison without anyone knowing they were there or getting legal counsel.

Both the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly have insisted that even such prisoners deserve the right to legal counsel.

In his memorandum, Gonzales added that “the war against terrorism ... renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners.” Unfortunately, this position may have contributed to the failures that led to the abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the revelation of which earlier this year has led to the prosecution of U.S. military prison guards and tainted our country’s honor.

The nominee also has been a central supporter of the USA Patriot Act, which we have argued all along has restricted Americans’ rights, for example by allowing searches without warrants.

At a minimum, the Judiciary Committee hearings will be an opportunity for senators closely to examine Bush administration legal policy on terrorism and civil rights. The second Bush administration needs to respect the Bill of Rights more than did the first.