ALBERTO GONZALES ~ A Record of Injustice

Just because he's Brown doesn't mean he's Down, gente.  Dubya's nomination of Alberto R. Gonzales to replace John Ashcroft as Attorney General is not good for Latinos, not good for the Country.  Yes, Gonzales seems to be pro-choice and supportive of affirmative action...but for how long under the thumb of the Bush Regime?  And his spotty views on two progressive issues do not overshadow his glaring, and lengthy, "Record of Injustice":

Unless you live under a rock in a red state, you already know about Gonzales' January 2002 Memo, and the subsequent Department of Justice  August 2002 Memo (drafted by John Yoo after meeting with Gonzales and Dubya), both of which authorize torture by attempting to claim exemptions from the Geneva Conventions in order to evade domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act.(!)  According to Newsweek, the August memo "was drafted after White House meetings convened by George W. Bush's chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales, along with Defense Department general counsel William Haynes and [Cheney counsel] David Addington." The memo included the opinion that laws prohibiting torture do "not apply to the President's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants." Further, the memo puts forth the opinion that the pain caused by an interrogation must include "injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions in order to constitute torture." The methods outlined in the memo "provoked concerns within the CIA about possible violation of the federal torture law [and] also raised concerns at the FBI, where some agents knew of the techniques being used" overseas on high-level al Qaeda officials.  You can read more about this, here and here.

As chief legal counsel for then Gov. Bush in Texas from 1995 to 1997, Gonzales was responsible for writing a memo on the facts of each death penalty case -- Bush decided whether a defendant should live or die based on the memos.  During Gonzales' term, Texas executed more prisoners than any other state. An examination of the Gonzales memoranda by the Atlantic Monthly concluded: "Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence." His memos caused Bush frequently to approve executions based on "only the most cursory briefings on the issues in dispute." Rather than informing the governor of the conflicting circumstances in a case, "The memoranda seem attuned to a radically different posture, assumed by Bush from the earliest days of his administration‹one in which he sought to minimize his sense of legal and moral responsibility for executions." [Atlantic Monthly, July/August, 2003.]

As a Texas Supreme Court Justice, Gonzales accepted donations from litigants: In the weeks between hearing oral arguments and making a decision in Henson v. Texas Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance, Justice Alberto Gonzales collected a $2,000 contribution premium from the Texas Farm Bureau (which runs the defendant insurance company in this case). In another case, Gonzales pocketed a $2,500 contribution from a law firm defending the Royal Insurance company just before hearing oral arguments in Embrey v. Royal Insurance.  Oh yes, campaign cash influences judicial opinions.

Don't forget that Gonzales once was a partner in the Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins, representing energy giant Enron and Halliburton.  As you know, both Enron and Halliburton are under active investigation by the Department of Justice.  Worse, Gonzales' connection to Enron and Halliburton did not end when he left Houston: Gonzales was Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1998-2000. During that time, Vice President Dick Cheney was head of Halliburton, and it was the second-largest corporate contributor to Texas Supreme Court races. Over a period of seven years, five cases involving Halliburton went before the Court, and the Court consistently ruled in favor of the corporation or let a lower court decision favorable to Halliburton stand without re-hearing the case.  During this same period, Gonzales lawfully accepted $14,000 from Enron, yet he subsequently did not recuse himself from the Administration’s investigation of the Enron scandal when he was White House counsel.  [Progressive Newswire, 11/10/04.]

I graduated from the same high school in Houston as Gonzales did (MacArthur ~ Go Generals); his father was a construction worker and so is mine, now with his own company; like Gonzales I come from immigrant roots, raised on the highly-fluoridated water in Houston and "active" in our communities.  How did we turn out so different?  I'm committed to and supportive of my Latino community, and communities of color in general ~ but I'm no sell out, and so I won't support his nomination just to see a Brown face allowed into the White House ~ we can do better than this.  It is not enough for us to say "that Gonzales is not nearly as bad as we might have expected."  Don't get played by the Race Card.

White, Black, Brown, ~ we should all oppose Gonzales' nomination.  The man who called the Geneva Conventions provisions "quaint" is not a good candidate for Attorney General.  Period.

EPILOGUE, Friday, November 12:
This just in ~ The New York Times reports:

Republicans close to the White House say that the choice of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general is part of a political strategy to bolster his credentials with conservatives and position him for a possible Supreme Court appointment in the future.

These Republicans said Thursday that Gonzales had been widely viewed as one of Bush's top choices for the court. But by first sending him to the Justice Department, they said, Bush could then nominate a conservative favored by his political base to fill the first vacancy that may arise.

Read the full article, here.

Comments

[Apian]

I am vehemently, actively opposed to the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General!

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) told the Associated Press that Gonzales’ confirmation hearing "may be the only remaining forum in which to examine more fully the steps that were taken to weaken U.S. policy on torture in the period that led to the prison scandals at Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan."
I have been all over the net for the last two weeks trying to find out some basic information about the Gonzales Confirmation hearings and the appointment process. I have been to high school teachers, history and law professors. I have even been reading about the confirmation hearings of Ashcroft. Can one of your informed readers please tell me:

1) Is there any limit to the questions the Senate Judiciary Committee can ask Gonzales?

2) Can they request documents?

3) Is there a time limit to each committee member?

4) Once it gets to the floor of the Senate, is there any limit on the time each Senator can take? Any limit on questions they can ask Gonzales? Can they request documents?

5) Is there anything that could delay or prolong these hearings?

6) Is filibuster allowed? Is it effective?

Once you've notified all the committee members, your Senator, (and everyone else's too), contributed to Veterans for Common Sense ad campaign, is there anything else one can do?

Thank you.

[lito]

It should also be noted that both LULAC and NCLR have endorsed Gonzales' nomination. To me this is really disturbing, and I hope that every Latino against his nomination makes the extra effort to speak out against him. It is not a triumph, but a great tragedy that the first Latino to be in such a position would be someone this right-wing and dangerous. Imagine if the first African American on the Supreme Court had been Clarence Thomas, not Thurgood Marshall.

With the mainstream org's giving him a pass and even celebrating this nomination, progressives Latinos need to make a statement about this.

[Lexi]

I think we need to move past descriptive representation. Of course we want ppl of color in top positions. But he said the Geneva Convention was "quaint." I was irritated that the Dems and NCLR are going to green-light him.

Isn't it better to have a white guy who's at least moderate? Lord knows Rod Paige never did anything for my ppl, and I'm glad he's leaving. My $0.19

(complete aside)I bought my first Aveda lipgloss today, all b/c of you, M, LOL

[DailyTexican]

Wow, Chad is commenting now? Anyway, I digress. Would any of us really approve of any Republican the President nominates for AG? Is it not better we have a Latino conservative than a gringo conservative (i dunno, just asking)? Is Gonzalez worse than Ashcroft? I don't think we're ever going to be happy with anyone that office nominates, unless it's Colin Powell.

[cindylu]

thanks for posting this. i hadn't read much about gonzalez until yesterday and it seems like people who think like me think this appointment is bad. honestly, i was annoyed that he was latino. why do they always gotta feature the sell outs?

[Chad]

You know, every time I read about Texas I thank my lucky (lone) stars that I have never so much as stepped foot in that godforsakenplace.