Alberto Gonzales and 'the crucial elements of racial inequality'
By Steve Benen Thursday Jul 03, 2008 3:30pm
We haven’t heard too much from Alberto Gonzales since he resigned in disgrace as Attorney General. He was last seen struggling to find a job in his profession, and delivering a commencement address at a small high school in the Virgin Islands. (Seriously.)
I was surprised, then, to see Gonzales pop up in the LAT with an op-ed on “what Latinos want from their president.” The former AG, without a hint of irony, emphasized the importance of the next administration taking “racial equality” seriously.
[Latinos] want a society that recognizes and rewards us based on our hard work and ingenuity, not our skin color…. [A]lthough we know that America strives to be a fair country, the harsh reality is we are not one nation with liberty and justice for all. […]
As we move to the next phase of the presidential campaign, some people may try to discourage discussion about race relations in favor of issues they say are of greater importance…. However, we need leaders who appreciate — and who choose to confront — the crucial elements of racial inequality within these so-called bigger issues. Those are the leaders who are likely to be successful in finding effective solutions to our most important challenges.
Look, all of this is very nice. It’s a compelling sentiment about an issue I feel very strongly about.
But if Alberto Gonzales thinks he can speak with any authority — moral or otherwise — about combating “the crucial elements of racial inequality,” he must assume we have very short memories.
Maybe Gonzales can talk about his comfort level with the Bush administration’s approach to vote caging. Or maybe Gonzales can explore what happened to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during his tenure in the administration. Or perhaps Gonzales can explain why the Justice Department’s habit of violating employment law got worse after he became Attorney General.
I certainly agree that we do need leaders who “appreciate — and who choose to confront — the crucial elements of racial inequality,” but it would have been nice to have a chief law-enforcement officer who took these issues seriously, too.
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alberto gonzales and the entire neo conseravative movement should be laughed at, ridiculed, and pelted with rotten vegetables. They should be homeless selling pencils out of a tin cup.
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I... I... I, honestly... I don't recall.
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You can't blame Gonzales for all that. After all, he wasn't running the Justice Department. Rove was.
"As we move to the next phase of the presidential campaign, some people may try to discourage discussion about race relations in favor of issues they say are of greater importance…."
What could be of greater importance? Could he possibly be referring to, well, maybe torture?
Worse than Ed Meese, and he was dumber than a sack full of shit.
Today Thomas Jefferson's ghost weeps as George W. Bush speeks at Monticello.
May we one day undo the damage that George has wrought.
May the Democrats someday soon find the courage to restore the Constitution to its full glory. Perhaps even a few Republicons will realize the value of living under the rule of law and not of men.
I don't know about you but that sounds like an endorsement for Obama to me. Could it be that Alberto finally realized he was just a token tool of the Bush administration?
The only explanation is that Gonzales has recently invested a lot of money into a company that has developed an irony meter, and he was attempting to test it.
I love it how grand scumbags begin to talk after they've commited treason, and they cannot possible see how far up their asses, their heads are.
Peter G @ 7:
Someone else wrote it. Speedy couldn't string three words in a sentence together except "I don't remember".
i would imagine that those fine folks at the international court of human rights will not judge him on the color of his skin when they prosecute him for war crimes.
I don't recall.
The ponderous war criminal...
What Latinos really want is to be able to forget this turkey ever existed. Please Alberto, that rock in Texas that you crawled out from under...
Has he tried UC Berkeley? I hear they'll employ any ol' war criminals.
john mccain does need a v.p.
I believe the phrase you are looking for is "left town in a hail of bullets."
And heaven knows he has striven mightily to ensure the profound equality of liberty and justice for none.
Attorney General. yr doin it rong.
pete @ 16:
Virtual proctologist ?
I`d tell you what I`d like to do to Gonzo,Rove,Bush ,Cheney et.,al.,but I do not recall.
I suppose he concludes that whatever Latinos want from their president it will happen to be amazingly like John McCain?
Oh, that reminds me...
Another McPoint please, Johnny-boy.
Everyone know that he was being used. You mean to tell me that he expected them to protect him once they had used him up. Poor thing, he didn't understand that he was just their water boy and not a part of their league.
My July 4th message:
The system that promoted Alberto Gonzales to A.G. is broken.
The real problem isn't blue dog Dem, Repubs, the U.S. Supreme Court, congress, the president, or all of the above. They are symptoms.
The problem is the system that produces all these fucks.
Energy should be directed here and at other political blogs toward changing the system.
Otherwise, it will be Obama, McCain, who cares? Except we place hope and faith in Obama. To which I say, good luck.
I guess Gonzo will be voting for a black guy in November.
The DOJ fired attorneys who couldn't find evidence of voters fraud
While protecting voting caging (largely affecting minorities)
And underprosecuting civil rights violations
And the DOJ is under the AG which he was
And now he's trying to reinvent himself?
Alberto dreams of a world more like the Bush Administration; where any man-- regardless of color-- can toady to power and be richly rewarded for it.
6 Restore the Constitution
Today at Monticello were a couple of protestors.
While they were being hustled out by armed goons, boosh was saying we're in a country that believe in free speech, and he didn't see the irony.
The crowd cheered boosh and jeered the protestors.
And then our local 12:00 p.m. news anchor bimbo said boosh handled it well.
I shut the damn thing off.
LOL...hey, come on! Look what Bush has done for ethnic equality. He has shown that INDEED it doesn't matter what gender, ethnicity, etc. you might be. We're all HUMANS! And, just to prove that we have the capacity to be unmitigated assholes, one need only look at Condee Rice or Alberto Gonzalez. Color blind, indeed, in his endless capacity to find the worst aspects of species and put it on display. The non-white/males in his Administration are every bit as adept at being liars, thieves, treasonous and murderers.
Hey Gonzo, bu$h has a Filipino cooking his supper. It doesn't get any fairer than that. He even said he's good!
That is quaint.
Edwin Hussein @ 28:
Pork Adobo, anyone?
Gonzales turned his back on his race and even helped the Bush Administration to punish Latinos while allowing his sister to continue to sell drugs. Now that the Bush Team kicked him out he wants his people back. Ask any Latino and they will say they don't like or even know Al Gonzales. His wife left him and took everything he had stolen while working with the crooks. He will be charged and convicted of the crimes he committed. His lost hope is that Bush gives him a pardon. Gonzales is a man with no country or race even Mexico doesn't want him. I wonder with all the stolen money that was for the youth programs and the fact that Al allowed kids to be raped and killed under his watch.
IANAL, but it seems to me that there is a long-standing tradition in international law that says:
-if you capture territory under arms and exert jurisdiction over it, it is considered to be your territory until your enemy captures it back.
-among other ways of exerting jurisdiction over territory would be capturing and holding prisoners.
So wouldn't that shred Rove's and the administration's argument that habeas corpus doesn't apply because these people are being held extraterritorially?
And of course on July 4 one should call attention to the idea that it is self-evident that all men are created equal. Not to mention the concept that someone is innocent until proven guilty. Many of these detainees have not only not been proven guilty, they have positively been shown to be innocent.
Aw, crap I'm on the wrong thread! I wondered why all y'all were going on about Gone-z0. :lol:
Considering he may yet go to prison for the hiring practices that prevailed at the Justice Department under him I'd be trying to keep a much lower profile if I were an asshole like him.
DJ @ 25:
Toady? With that picture I can believe it. That picture is CR-EE-PY! He seems to turn into something out of Pan's Labyrinth.
Lawn ornament, really sad ... but true. But hey, I'm sure he's got one hellva' zip code.
Latino or not, a fucking traitor is a fucking traitor.
It's a little unclear but is Alberto suggesting that the way to improve the discussion on race is to NOT elect the black guy but to elect the old, white guy?
[Racial simplification for emphasis...]
Its really bad to discriminate based on race. But for Alberto, its ok to discriminate based on political leanings.
What a tool.
Gonzo reminds me of those classmates in grade 8 who couldn't write 3 complete sentences or who couldn't handle mixed fractions but who figured out that they could succeed by smiling at the teacher. That is, until they ran headlong into standardized achievement tests, more talented peers and some adults who smelled his bullshit.
Neo-classical secular humanist @ 40:
About right- Bitch!!
ysbaddaden @ 24:
Maybe its a new brilliant repuke strategy?
Think about it. Have all the most vile, most despicable cretins and criminals in the Bush cartel come out and publicly support Obama! Would certainly make the voters think: "what the hell is wrong with this Obama guy, that sleazebags like Gonzalez support him?"
Pure Rove. The idiot voters and MSM bobble-heads would never suspect it.
A ploy that cynical and devoid of any sense of decency, would be right up the GOP's alley!
All I want to hear from him is whether I want fries with my lunch. Certainly he can remember yes or no.
mr.ed @ 43:
Don't count on it.
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