Alberto Gonzales Lacks Respect for the Rule of Law (Feingold)

Thursday, 27 January 2005, 12:17 pm
Press Release: Senator Russ Feingold

'Alberto Gonzales Lacks Respect for the Rule of Law'
Wednesday 26 January 2005
Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold at the Senate Judiciary Committee on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be Attorney General of the United States.

<snip> As Judge Gonzales himself said as he stood next to the President on the day he was nominated: "The American people expect and deserve a Department of Justice guided by the rule of law." I am pained to say, Mr. Chairman, that Mr. Gonzales' performance as White House Counsel and, particularly, his appearance before this Committee and his responses to our questions, have given me grave doubts about whether he meets that test. Judge Gonzales too often has seen the law as an obstacle to be dodged or cleared away in furtherance of the President's policies. <snip>

Time after time, Judge Gonzales has been a key participant in developing secret legal theories to justify policies that, as they have become public, have tarnished our nation's international reputation and made it harder, not easier, for us to prevail in this struggle. He requested and then disseminated the infamous Office of Legal Counsel ("OLC") memo that for almost two years, until it was revealed and discredited, made it the position of the government of the United States of America that the International Convention Against Torture, and statutes implementing that treaty, prohibit only causing physical pain "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." Under that standard, the images from Abu Ghraib that revolted the entire world would not be considered torture, nor, according to some, would the shocking interrogation technique called "waterboarding."

Judge Gonzales advised the President that he could declare the entire legal regime of the Geneva Conventions inapplicable to the conflict in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Powell rightly pointed out the danger of this course, but Judge Gonzales persisted. This theory could actually have given greater legal protection to terrorists, by taking away a key part of the legal regime under which war crimes can be prosecuted. The idea that the Geneva Conventions protect terrorists who commit war crimes, which Judge Gonzales repeated in his hearing, is a dramatic misunderstanding of the law, and it was very troubling to hear it from the person who would coordinate our legal strategy in the war on terrorism.

Judge Gonzales was also an architect of the Administration's position on the legal status of those it called "enemy combatants," a position that was soundly rejected by the Supreme Court of the United States last year. <snip>

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0501/S00296.htm

He voted for Condalseeza rice, but if Fenigold is really concerned about the rule of law, he'll vote against Gonzales for AG.

you folded for Condi, back up your words and vote against Gonzales!

one,(I heard anyway)that asked him about this:

MEMORANDUM ON TERRY WASHINGTON: A CASE STUDY IN INCOMPETENCE: In his briefing on death-row defendant Terry Washington – a mentally retarded 33-year-old man with the communication skills of a seven-year-old – Gonzales devoted nearly a third of his three-page report to the gruesome details of the crime, but referred "only fleetingly to the central issue in Washington's clemency appeal—his limited mental capacity, which was never disputed by the State of Texas—and present it as part of a discussion of 'conflicting information' about the condemned man's childhood." In addition, Gonzales "failed to mention that Washington's mental limitations, and the fact that he and his ten siblings were regularly beaten with whips, water hoses, extension cords, wire hangers, and fan belts, were never made known to the jury, although both the district attorney and Washington's trial lawyer knew of this potentially mitigating evidence." Nor did he mention that Washington's lawyer had "failed to enlist a mental-health expert" to testify on Washington's behalf, even though "ineffective counsel and mental retardation were in fact the central issues raised in the thirty-page clemency petition" it was Gonzales's job to review. This all came at a time when "demand was growing nationwide to ban executions of the retarded."


Here's a few others:

GONZALES DOES ENRON'S BIDDING: As an elected member of the Texas Supreme Court, "Enron and Enron's law firm were Gonzales's biggest contributors," giving him $35,450 in 2000. Overall, Gonzales raked in $100,000 from the energy industry. In May 2000, "Gonzales was author of a state Supreme Court opinion that handed the energy industry one of its biggest Texas legal victories in recent history." Since Bush brought him into the White House, Gonzales has worked doggedly to keep secret the details of energy task force meetings held by Vice President Cheney.

ACCEPTING 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.

Visit the Alberto Gonzales resource page.

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=246536


Feingold did vote against him, the committee voted today and all Dems voted no, I don't think he'll change his mind during the Senate vote...

And Thank you, Feingold, for opposing the Gonzales nomination.

lockstep for a Republican president, unlike a Democratic president, must always get absolutely everything he wants with no questions asked for, you see, the framers crafted the Constitution with the intent that Congress just rubber-stamp absolutely everything a Republican president wants, especially with matters relating to appropriation of funds, war, and nominations.