Gonzales May Be Next Attorney General

White House counsel Alberto Gonzales is said to be an early favorite to replace John Ashcroft as Attorney General.

I’m concerned about this choice as he has been involved in creating some of the problems that I perceive within the Justice Department. He publicly defended policies of holding onto suspects without access to legal representation or to the court systems for prolonged periods of time. The Supreme Court has ruled that legal limbo is illegal under the due process clause as I’ve mentioned before.

We need a new direction, not a continuation of a failed direction.

This is most unwise. They need an independent thinker who is not a buddy of the President.

An Attorney General needs to have enough distance from the President to order up independent investigations in the event that wrongdoing by the President or the Administration is discovered. That is what infuriated me about Janet Reno; she didn’t when she should have; she did when she shouldn’t have. The Justice Department is not the White House defense team. As the nation’s top cop, the Attorney General needs to enforce the law, not disregard any aspect of it.

The President really needs to think this through.