OpinionJournal - The Next Justice
Nothing Personal Attorney General Gonzales offers Judge Roberts some bad advice.
BY MANUEL MIRANDA Friday, September 2, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
My invitation to join the "murder boards," the name given to the grueling mock panels that are helping John Roberts practice for his hearings next week, was lost in the mail, so I thought I would give the nominee my advice in this column.
• Eat. You look as if you've lost more than 10 pounds. No doubt that different people react in different ways to wondering all day what they might have written 20 years ago, but please don't starve yourself.
• Don't appear to change your answer in midhearing. The Democrats will use your understandable desire not to be misunderstood as an opportunity for gotcha, and they will question your credibility and integrity.
• Time your sense of humor and prepare your facial expressions to hide disgust just slightly. Do not be surprised if new or very old quips are thrown in your face to make you look like a Neanderthal.
• Don't take the advice of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
On Wednesday, USA Today reported, under the headline "Gonzales: Some Abortion Queries OK," that Mr. Gonzales thinks it would be "appropriate" for the Senate Judiciary Committee to ask Judge Roberts about his personal views on abortion.
I like the attorney general very much and am certain that he is capable on many matters, but professional experience tells me that careful thinking on the nominations issue is not one of them. After hubristic Senate Democrats, two men are most responsible for the recent years' obstruction on judicial nominees. One is Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, because of his weak-kneed chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, and the other is Mr. Gonzales, for failing from the start to understand the politics of the issue and the contours of his power when he was White House counsel.
Mind you, John Roberts would win great admiration from me (and others) were he to repeat what Bill Pryor, now a judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said at his hearing: that Roe v. Wade was "an abomination in the law" that had cost the lives of millions of unborn children. The first part was Mr. Pryor's legal opinion, with which many thoughtful liberals agree--including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who in 1985 called Roe a "gross intervention" by the court. The second part was an expression of Mr. Pryor's personal view on the sacredness of life."
Okay, okay, time-out. Great big forest over there fella, see it? Uhhuh, just to the left of them trees...
Firstly, Gonzales is the quintessential yes-man and if George W. Bush were still alive he'd be turning over in his grave at the contradictory words coming from his Attorney Buck Private...sorry, General doesn't suit this man at all.
From the get-go, he waffled on gun control, telling the committee what he thought they wanted to hear as opposed to his own feelings. This is pretty much the sort of guy that agrees with most anyone who puts a query to him in a level, reassuring voice, and here's hoping his staff remembers why the President selected him, because he's long forgotten. Can tell why W likes the guy, though. Probably a righteous dude to take on a camping trip, but sweet mother of pearl he's so afraid of displeasing someone that he pisses off pretty much everyone.
Buck Private Gonzales; A Man For All Moments. And psst...Miranda, not to worry, everybody but you knows this so it's cool.
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