See if He Floats
The Senate confirmation hearings on the proposed appointment of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General start today. The Bush administration will use questionable "legal technicalities" to withhold requested information from the Senate, and Gonzales will give evasive and self-serving half answers to legitimate questions from Democrats, while also distancing himself from every questionable thing he ever said or wrote by saying those were done as a counselor and do not necessarily represent his personal views. When asked for his personal views, he will answer in vague platitudes. This is the way the game is played.
Gonzales was author and apparently one of the leads in recommending the wholesale elimination of due process rights of any accused persons alleged to be involved in any obscure way with terrorism. As part of the recommended package, the Bush administration disregarded the advice of its own military and 50 years of internationally agreed conventions by approving the use of prisoner torture. The US Supreme Court has handed down a couple rulings rebuking the Bush practices and restoring some semblance of rights for the accused. The official approval of torture "trickled down" to a "few bad apples" at Abu Ghraib prison, resulting in the best recruiting posters in the history of Al Qaeda.
Cabinet post confirmation hearings rarely result in rejection, since the posts are considered as somewhat personal advisory and executory positions under the President for his term of office. The real importance of the hearing is for its effect on any future plans for the nominee, particularly for appointment to a lifetime judicial position like the Supreme Court, which many people think Bush has in mind for Gonzales.
I say we should apply to Gonzales the interrogation tactics he encouraged. Lets put a bag over his head, strip him nude, attach electrodes to his testicles, menace him with snarling dogs, chain him on a leash and sexually humiliate him, to see if he opens up with a little more information. As a final test, lets leave his confirmation in the hands of the "highest authority" by tying a rock around his neck and throwing him in the Potomac to see if he floats.
Here is a link to an NPR piece on the hearing: http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=4270629
Gonzales was author and apparently one of the leads in recommending the wholesale elimination of due process rights of any accused persons alleged to be involved in any obscure way with terrorism. As part of the recommended package, the Bush administration disregarded the advice of its own military and 50 years of internationally agreed conventions by approving the use of prisoner torture. The US Supreme Court has handed down a couple rulings rebuking the Bush practices and restoring some semblance of rights for the accused. The official approval of torture "trickled down" to a "few bad apples" at Abu Ghraib prison, resulting in the best recruiting posters in the history of Al Qaeda.
Cabinet post confirmation hearings rarely result in rejection, since the posts are considered as somewhat personal advisory and executory positions under the President for his term of office. The real importance of the hearing is for its effect on any future plans for the nominee, particularly for appointment to a lifetime judicial position like the Supreme Court, which many people think Bush has in mind for Gonzales.
I say we should apply to Gonzales the interrogation tactics he encouraged. Lets put a bag over his head, strip him nude, attach electrodes to his testicles, menace him with snarling dogs, chain him on a leash and sexually humiliate him, to see if he opens up with a little more information. As a final test, lets leave his confirmation in the hands of the "highest authority" by tying a rock around his neck and throwing him in the Potomac to see if he floats.
Here is a link to an NPR piece on the hearing: http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=4270629
posted by Tom Blake | 8:49 AM
2 Comments:
Tom, you called for tough questioning of Alberto Gonzales. Apparently it didn't happen. As usual I didn't watch the news during the hearings, but an editorial by Joe Klein in Time paints another bleak picture of the lack of opposition leadership by the Democrats. According to Klein, the only tough question came from a Republican, Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. He particularly makes fun of Joe Biden who didn't even ask a question, but instead tried to attack Gonzonles' lack of candor during his ten minutes, but all the time saying how much he loved the man. I do remember seeing a fleeting recording of that on TV and Biden did look ridiculous.
I don't understand the game plan of the Democrats. They are dying throughout the country and yet seem intent on going gentle into that good night.
I didn't call for tough questioning; I called for torture. Seriously, cabinet confirmation hearings rarely result in rejections. Opponents of a questionable policy, like torture, can use the hearings to criticize the policy, and the prospective appointee can agree it would not be a good policy and distance himself from it. But once appointed, he will do whatever his boss, George, tells him to do.
Democrats could be thinking ahead of possible Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Gonzales by trying to get him on the record now swearing to certain facts about his role in the torture memos and then do more investigation between now and a future hearing on a Court appointment to see if they can make a case he lied in these hearings. John Dean argues quite persuasively in "The Rehnquist Choice" that Rehnquist lied in his initial Court appointment hearing about a memo he wrote as Law Clerk to Supreme Court Justice Jackson in 1952, taking the position that racially segregated public schools were not unconstitutional and about his involvement in Arizona poll challenges to minority voters early in his law career. Unfortunately the evidence of deceit was not assembled sufficiently in time to use against Rehnquist in the later hearing to confirm his apppointment as Chief Justice.
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1982, Gonzales joined the law firm that represented Enron and worked there until becoming involved as counsel to Bush, which led to a brief term as Texas Secretary of State and then appointment to the Texas Supreme Court, before joining the Bush White House team. Interestingly, unlike the other cabinet members, who are all at least millionaires, Gonzales reports a net worth between $72,000 and $381,000, with credit card debt of over $10,000, not what one would expect of someone with his apparent financial opportunities. Perhaps he lost lots of his wealth in the Enron collapse. He does not seem to have had any significant corporate director positions, but he has been involved with activist Hispanic groups, so maybe he could turn out to be a sleeper liberal if appointed to the Courrt.
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