Gonzales to Face Tough Questions

The Senate confirmation hearings of Alberto Gonzales, nominated by El Presidente to fill the sanctified shoes of John Ashcroft as Attorney General, might be worth staying home from work to watch on C-SPAN. The hearings are set to begin this Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Gonzales is sure to be asked about infamous memos he wrote justifying the torture of prisoners -- one in particular opined that the President of the United States could do anything he wanted to in his role as protector. In another memorandum, he wrote to the president saying the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the conflict in Afghanistan. He described the conventions as "quaint." Watch Gonzales deny that he ever wrote (i.e., meant) any such thing. He'll say his language has been misinterpreted, probably for partisan political reasons.

Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, who served as the Navy's judge advocate general from 1997 to 2000 before he retired, is joining several other military legal experts, all former generals or admirals, in releasing a letter today asserting that Mr. Gonzales's legal judgments should disqualify him for the post of attorney general. The NYTimes published excerpts of that letter this a.m., but there's more on it here. The letter says Mr. Gonzales's actions "fostered greater animosity toward the United States, undermined our intelligence gathering efforts, and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world."

Conventional wisdom in D.C. has it that Bush will nominate Gonzales to the Supreme Court the minute there's a vacancy.