Giddy for Gonzales

Already many in the mainstream media, and more than a few Democrats, are fawning over Alberto Gonzales, John Ashcroft's successor as Attorney General and Karl Rove's dream candidate to fill the next Supreme Court vacancy. He's "courtly and low-key" according to Newsweek and "soft- spoken, nondogmatic and viewed with suspicion by conservatives," writes the Washington Post. "I can tell you he's already a better candidate than John Ashcroft," Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said.

Better than Ashcroft? That's like comparing Franco to Mussolini.

"In some ways, Gonzales is more dangerous than Ashcroft," says Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights. As White House Counsel, Gonzales helped draft the Patriot Act, advocated secret detentions at Guantanamo and wrote memos effectively legalizing torture, calling the Geneva Convention "quaint" and key provisions "obsolete." He drastically restricted access to presidential documents and blocked the Senate from obtaining past memos of judicial nominees.

While chief legal counsel for then Governor Bush in Texas, Gonzales exhibited a cavalier attitude toward capital punishment and "repeatedly failed to appraise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence," according to The Atlantic Monthly . In the case of Terry Washington, Gonzales skirted the issue of the 33-year-old defendant's severe childhood abuse and mental retardation, leading the uninformed jury to decide on--and Bush to hand down--a callous and questionable execution.

Although he lacked any judicial experience, Bush then appointed Gonzales to the Texas Supreme Court. As Chief Justice, Gonzales accepted money from Halliburton and the Texas Farm Bureau before handing down verdicts on their behalf, and took $35,000 from Enron in 2000.

Now Gonzales pledges to "build upon [Ashcroft's] record." Influential right-wing groups like the Christian Coalition, Family Research Council and Family Action Group immediately endorsed his candidacy.

Despite his alarming record, Democrats know it's political suicide to block the country's first Hispanic Attorney General. Yet they shouldn't label Gonzales a "moderate." Whitewashers point repeatedly to two incidents to burnish what they argue are Gonzales' less-than-conservative credentials: as Chief Justice he followed Texas law and allowed a 17-year-old girl to get an abortion without parental consent and while White House counsel he advised the Bush Administration to compromise on affirmative action. But two instances of judicial restraint do not erase a legacy of eroding civil liberties, increasing secrecy, fast-tracking executions of the mentally ill and shilling for large corporations.

The Los Angeles Times had the courage to say what few others would: "Gonzales is a Disastrous Choice."

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