Just Curious

Alberto Gonzales

President Bush has already announced his nomination of Alberto Gonzales, current White House Counsel, as the next Attorney General of the United States.

I am not familiar with Mr. Gonzales' political records or his jurisprudential views, but he does strike me as a man who has much better qualifications for the office than the current AG John Ashcroft.

Unlike Mr. Ashcroft, who has no experience whatsoever as a judge and little experience as a lawyer, and spent most of his political career as an elected official, Mr. Gonzales was a former Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, former Secretary of State of Texas and Counsel to the President of the United States. As such, he is much more experienced in what Justice Benjamin Cardozo would call the "judicial process." It is also likelier that he would be a black-letter lawyer, rather than a partisan advocate.

Alas gone were the days of Dr. Edward H. Levi, the greatest non-partisan Attorney General of recent times (1975-1977) and the first Jewish president of a major non-sectarian research university (University of Chicago). Gone were the days of Dr. Erwin N. Griswold, who served as Solicitor General to both LBJ and Nixon (1967-1973), two Presidents who held diametrically opposite political doctrines.

Gone also were the days of Presidents Coolidge (1923-1929), Hoover (1929-1933), Eisenhower (1953-1961), Ford (1974-1977) and Carter (1977-1981) when Presidents deliberately appoint people from the opposite party to the Justice Department to make the Department as non-partisan as possible.

posted by James Chang @ 3:59 PM