After Ashcroft
After Ashcroft
November 11, 2004
SENATORS CONSIDERING President Bush's nomination of his chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales, as the next attorney general should question him closely to make sure they are not replacing one divisive and authoritarian lawyer with another.
John Ashcroft, in his letter of resignation, declared himself greatly satisfied with his four-year record. "The rule of law has been strengthened and upheld in the courts," he said.
In fact, Ashcroft was chastened several times for trampling with abandon on civil liberties. In June the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could not deny people it designated enemy combatants the right to challenge their detention. The court also questioned Ashcroft's much publicized prosecution of a US citizen, Jose Padilla. A month earlier another court threw out Ashcroft's directive trying to make Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law illegal, saying it was "unlawful and unenforceable."
The Justice Department's own inspector general last year blasted the prolonged detention of illegal immigrants after the Sept. 11 attacks. Even Bush's spokesman said earlier this year that the president was "disappointed" that Ashcroft declassified documents to discredit the 9/11 Commission.
Ashcroft's legacy is that the country badly needs an attorney general who will act not only as an effective fighter against crime and terrorism but also as the chief protector of constitutional rights, not as the chief apologist for the ultimate power of the state.
Bush yesterday praised Gonzales's "sharp intellect and sound judgment." And Gonzales said: "Just give me a chance to prove myself."
Gonzales should certainly have that chance, starting in a Senate hearing room.
What stands out from Gonzales's public resume is his long and loyal service to George Bush. Such a close relationship can be an asset to the country as well as the president -- if it is accompanied by the independence to investigate the administration's own agencies, to appoint truly independent and aggressive special prosecutors when needed, and to be guided by the Constitution and the law, not politics.
On this count, serious questions are raised by Gonzales's support of the administration's now repudiated detention policy and his 2002 memo suggesting some terror suspects are not protected from torture by law or the Geneva Conventions. In both cases, Gonzales gave Bush the answer he wanted rather than sound legal judgment.
Unlike other Cabinet members, the attorney general has as his primary responsibility the protection of the people, not the president. Only if Gonzales can demonstrate that he believes this to his core and will act on it should he be confirmed.
Also read:
Change at Justice
"He brings a lot of baggage to the job of healing the breach his predecessor created, baggage the Senate Judiciary Committee should inspect carefully."
November 11, 2004
SENATORS CONSIDERING President Bush's nomination of his chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales, as the next attorney general should question him closely to make sure they are not replacing one divisive and authoritarian lawyer with another.
John Ashcroft, in his letter of resignation, declared himself greatly satisfied with his four-year record. "The rule of law has been strengthened and upheld in the courts," he said.
In fact, Ashcroft was chastened several times for trampling with abandon on civil liberties. In June the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could not deny people it designated enemy combatants the right to challenge their detention. The court also questioned Ashcroft's much publicized prosecution of a US citizen, Jose Padilla. A month earlier another court threw out Ashcroft's directive trying to make Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law illegal, saying it was "unlawful and unenforceable."
The Justice Department's own inspector general last year blasted the prolonged detention of illegal immigrants after the Sept. 11 attacks. Even Bush's spokesman said earlier this year that the president was "disappointed" that Ashcroft declassified documents to discredit the 9/11 Commission.
Ashcroft's legacy is that the country badly needs an attorney general who will act not only as an effective fighter against crime and terrorism but also as the chief protector of constitutional rights, not as the chief apologist for the ultimate power of the state.
Bush yesterday praised Gonzales's "sharp intellect and sound judgment." And Gonzales said: "Just give me a chance to prove myself."
Gonzales should certainly have that chance, starting in a Senate hearing room.
What stands out from Gonzales's public resume is his long and loyal service to George Bush. Such a close relationship can be an asset to the country as well as the president -- if it is accompanied by the independence to investigate the administration's own agencies, to appoint truly independent and aggressive special prosecutors when needed, and to be guided by the Constitution and the law, not politics.
On this count, serious questions are raised by Gonzales's support of the administration's now repudiated detention policy and his 2002 memo suggesting some terror suspects are not protected from torture by law or the Geneva Conventions. In both cases, Gonzales gave Bush the answer he wanted rather than sound legal judgment.
Unlike other Cabinet members, the attorney general has as his primary responsibility the protection of the people, not the president. Only if Gonzales can demonstrate that he believes this to his core and will act on it should he be confirmed.
Also read:
Change at Justice
"He brings a lot of baggage to the job of healing the breach his predecessor created, baggage the Senate Judiciary Committee should inspect carefully."
posted by Pamela J. Leavey at 11:06 PM
2 Comments:
EDITORIAL
After John Ashcroft
Published: November 11, 2004
Having just emerged from a campaign season in which President Bush constantly reminded the public that he was a war president in the never-ending fight against terrorism, it felt a little peculiar to hear John Ashcroft resign as attorney general with the announcement that "the objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." Mr. Ashcroft, however, is yesterday's news. Now that he's leaving, we hope that Mr. Bush will take the opportunity to put the Justice Department back in the business of enforcing the laws evenhandedly and upholding Americans' constitutional rights.
Mr. Bush's swiftly chosen replacement, the White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, is not the highly polarizing figure Mr. Ashcroft is. Unfortunately, the news is not all good, because Mr. Gonzales has a long record of giving Mr. Bush bad legal advice. In Texas, when he was legal counsel to Governor Bush, Mr. Gonzales produced briefs on clemency appeals in death penalty cases that ignored evidence that some convicts were innocent or that they had gotten ineffective counsel. More recently, as White House counsel, he signed off on the ignoble memo explaining how to get away with torturing prisoners. He helped set up the unconstitutional system at Guantánamo Bay, and pronounced the Geneva Conventions a "quaint" anachronism.
The next attorney general will have to tackle the great undiscussed failing of Mr. Ashcroft's Justice Department: its ineffectiveness. The investigation and prosecution of domestic terrorism cases have produced little since 9/11 except dismissed charges, misidentified suspects and minor convictions of minor figures. The long-discussed upgrade of the F.B.I.'s computer system is taking too long. Communication within the F.B.I. and between it and the other intelligence agencies has improved, but not nearly enough.
There are other issues that Mr. Ashcroft chose to politicize that could easily be handled, and resolved, in a bipartisan manner. One is the Patriot Act. There was bipartisan support after 9/11 to give law enforcement officials new tools to find and jail terrorists. But it's now clear that not all of these powers are needed, and that some of them have eroded Americans' civil liberties beyond any reasonable balance with national security.
The Justice Department's defense that it has not used some of its powers - like compelling libraries to disclose private records without notifying the person involved - only confirms the need to take them off the books.
The Justice Department also urgently needs to review the administration's policies on detainees and prisoners of war in Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq. Given Mr. Gonzales's history on this subject, we hope that he uses his Senate confirmation hearings to promise to bring the government into compliance with international law, the Geneva Conventions and rulings by federal judges, including the Supreme Court.
Mr. Gonzales has shown that he can distinguish between a political agenda and the law. As a Texas Supreme Court justice, he voted to let a teenager get an abortion without her parents' knowledge because that was the law of Texas. That vote is already drawing fire from the right, but if Mr. Gonzales is confirmed by the Senate, we hope he brings that sort of reasoned approach to the Justice Department.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/opinion/11thu1.html
Check out the last on Olbermann -
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/
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