Don't rubber-stamp the Gonzales confirmation

[struggle4progress]

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
(KRT) - The following editorial appeared in The Miami Herald on Wednesday, Jan. 5.

There are many reasons for senators to be favorably predisposed to the nomination of Alberto R. Gonzales to become the nation's 80th attorney general, not the least of which is the wide latitude that presidents should have in selecting cabinet members. Gonzales' intelligence, his irresistibly attractive, up-by-the-bootstraps life story and his service as a state supreme-court justice in Texas all speak well for him. The dismal record of outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft, especially on civil liberties, is another reason to welcome a change.

But none of this constitutes a valid reason to give Gonzales a pass. His tenure as White House counsel has been clouded by his role in supervising the administration's legal strategy for dealing with terrorism and the treatment of detainees following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

He has been associated with, or responsible for, such controversial doctrines as the president's claim of a unilateral right to detain prisoners indefinitely without due process of law; harsh treatment of prisoners in defiance of the Geneva Conventions; and "extraordinary rendition," which allowed the CIA to transfer terror suspects out of Iraq for interrogation and hide them from the Red Cross, in violation of the Geneva protocols.

These issues are legitimate grounds for senators to explore when questioning Gonzales during confirmation hearings that begin tomorrow. These issues aren't theoretical disputes over fine points of law, but rather involve firmly established principles of U.S. democracy that trace their origins, in some cases, all the way back to the Magna Carta. Senators should determine if Gonzales still believes in these scary notions of absolute executive power, even after they've been rejected outright by the Supreme Court. <snip>

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/10570590.htm