High Expectations

Jesse Walker | February 4, 2005

The Senate has confirmed Alberto Gonzales as the nation's new attorney general. I expect he'll be almost as good as Reno and Ashcroft.

Comments

Jeff Smith|2.4.05 @ 10:22AM|#

Ouch!

Jeff

|2.4.05 @ 10:25AM|#

Nice.

When was the last time we had an AG that really deserved respect, anyway?

|2.4.05 @ 10:42AM|#

It does seem to be a dumping ground for pantloads. I can't remember who was AG for George the First. Maybe that's a sign he was a passable one.

|2.4.05 @ 10:43AM|#

R.C. Dean,

The answer to that question depends on your politics.

Most AGs have not likely been the partisan lightning rods that Reno and Ashcroft have been.

Anyway, how about Washington's first AG, Edmund Randolph? :)

|2.4.05 @ 10:47AM|#

Brian,

George Washington's first administration had three AGs:

Edmund Randolph
William Bradford
Charles Lee

Lee also served as AG for the entire Presidency of John Adams.

Warren|2.4.05 @ 10:53AM|#

Not even noon and I'm already drinking

|2.4.05 @ 11:27AM|#

I meant the first Bush . . . it was Thornburg or bird right?

Ed Meese was pretty entertaining.

|2.4.05 @ 11:34AM|#

Dick Thorburgh - a respectable representative of the "white shoe" law firms and the old Republican establishment. I may disagree with the politics of a guy like that, but in a million years Dick Thornburgh would never approve the torture of a human being.

|2.4.05 @ 12:08PM|#

Yep, the bar has really been lowered. An AG who would just stand against torture sounds so good now. Pathetic.

joe,

I've never heard the term "white shoe law firm". What does that mean? A firm that deals mostly in civil matters for upper income clients, maybe?

|2.4.05 @ 12:16PM|#

But can he sing?

"Let the eagle sore..."

|2.4.05 @ 12:25PM|#

I heard a report this morning that Donald Rumsfeld offered his resignation in the wake of Abu Gharib--twice. Am I the only one who thinks that's more than just ironic? Look at it from the President's perspective.

...The Secretary of Defense offers his resignation for following the advice of Alberto Gonzales, and, in spite of that, the President makes Alberto Gonzales the Attorney General!

pococurante|2.4.05 @ 1:08PM|#

(I've heard "white shoe" and think I know the basic definition -- what you said, Rick -- but I don't get just which kind of white shoes it refers to, or why. Aren't white shoes generally tacky or lower-class, a la Randy Quaid in Vacation?)

|2.4.05 @ 1:36PM|#

Ken,

With the torture scandal and this ambivalence where instead there should be condemnation, it seems that the administration is besmirching our national reputation as well as deserting one of the founding principles behind our republic. We need to make clear to the other people of the world that most Americans retain higher levels of decency than are displayed by the shameful actions of our government.

|2.4.05 @ 1:36PM|#

Rick, pococurante, "white shoe law firm" generally refers to the firms staffed by, and patronized by, the old WASPY northeast Republican elite.

When this caste actually was the ruling elite of this country, white shoes signified a comfortable, conservative gentility. Poor, out of date immitations of the habits of the wealthy (such as wearing white dress shoes in the 1980s) are often seen as markers of low SES.

|2.4.05 @ 2:21PM|#

Think the white bucks that used to be worn at, say, the Merion Cricket Club on Philadelphia's Main Line. Generally with searsucker suits or blus blazers and flannels. Entering this establishment for the first time (for an event hosted by my white shoe Philadelphia law firm) my jaw dropped to see a sign that said "Whites Only." It took me a minute to realize it referred to proper dress on the grass tennis courts.

|2.4.05 @ 2:41PM|#

I nominate Walker's surely favorite all time AG: A. Mitchell Palmer.

Joe: Exactly correct, like Clark Griswold borrowing cousin Eddie's white shoes in "Vacation."

|2.4.05 @ 3:15PM|#

"I expect he'll be almost as good as Reno and Ashcroft."

Don't put Ashcroft in the same category as Reno.

He's light-years ahead of her.

|2.4.05 @ 3:19PM|#

Light-years ahead in terms of what? Eroding civil liberties?

|2.4.05 @ 3:51PM|#

I'll take Reno's dance party over Ashcroft's soaring eagle.

|2.4.05 @ 5:38PM|#

Say what you want about Ashcroft -- and I'll probably agree with it -- but if he had a "Waco" I have yet to hear about it.

|2.4.05 @ 5:40PM|#

I like what Jon Stewart said about Ashcroft's song: He showed footage of Hillary Clinton sort of moving with the music at the inauguration and said "Oh my God, she is running for President!"

And how I long for the days of the old northeastern liberal Republicans. Those old WASPS may not have been libertarians by any stretch of the imagination, but at least religion and war-mongering weren't high on their agendas. Papa Bush went to war to secure oil, which was at least a rational motive that one could figure out and plan accordingly. W went to war because, well, we gotta go kick some A-rab ass!

|2.4.05 @ 5:45PM|#

Brian,

Ah. Well George HW Bush had two AGs:

Richard "Dick" Thornburgh

&

William Barr


Thornburgh was a holdover from the Reagan administration, BTW. He replaced Ed Meese in 1988.

No one ever remembers AG William French Smith from Reagan's first administration.


______________________________________

Elliot Richardson was a pretty damn good A.G. (being the first of those to resign during the "Saturday Night Massacre"). Ford had the decency to bring the man back into government after Nixon left office; he was our ambassador to Great Britain under that administration.

|2.4.05 @ 6:10PM|#

"Say what you want about Ashcroft -- and I'll probably agree with it -- but if he had a "Waco" I have yet to hear about it."

I just hope that doesn't become the standard--you know, beware the tyranny of lowered expectations.

|2.4.05 @ 6:19PM|#

My thoughts exactly, Ken. I'd hate to think that we might start evaluating our Attorneys General based solely on whether they had another Waco.

"Did he incinerate a bunch of innocent kids? Guess he must have been a pretty decent AG then!"

|2.4.05 @ 6:36PM|#

When I go, I want to be buried in a seersucker suit.

I want to be shot out of a cannon and into my grave too.

...during a live performance of the 1812 Overture.

|2.4.05 @ 6:39PM|#

The comment above was in reference to:

"Think the white bucks that used to be worn at, say, the Merion Cricket Club on Philadelphia's Main Line. Generally with searsucker suits or blus blazers and flannels."

...by the way.

|2.4.05 @ 6:46PM|#

Thoreau,

And God forbid that AGs start to judge themselves that way. Can you imagine?

...Well sure, I may have held hundreds of people without charge or access to an attorney, I may have expelled hundreds without charge or trial, and I may have actively fought for and enforced one of the most ludicrous pieces of legislation since the Alien and Sedition Acts, but hey, at least I didn't incinerate any children!

|2.5.05 @ 10:40AM|#

If you think about it for a minute, the only good AG is one whos name you can't remember.

And I can only think of one positive thing about Gonzo (can I call our chief torture apologist Gonzo?) He, to the best of my knowledge, has never annointed himself, ala king david, prior to taking office.

|2.5.05 @ 5:11PM|#

To flesh that out a little bit, John Ashcroft's father is alleged to have annointed his kneeling son's head with oil when he won his first election, thus earning him the appellation "Crisco Johnny."

|2.6.05 @ 1:01AM|#

Most underrated AG in modern American history: the late Ed Levi. He did a lot to restore confidence in the Justice Department after the Nixon-era scandals.

M. Simon|2.6.05 @ 9:17AM|#

Rick,

The alternative to detention/torture is battlefield torture then death.

BTW some have noted recently that battle field deaths of "insurgents" are up and captures down.

Seems like the torture "problem" has been solved.

Well at least there will no longer be any evidence. That is a comfort isn't it?

M. Simon|2.6.05 @ 9:30AM|#

thoreau,

We went to war for the usual reasons:

To convince all and sundry that mounting attacks against the USA or failing to uncover such plots (geeze I wasn't looking - better start looking) is not a profitable strategy, political or otherwise.

Jacksonian.

You see there may still be an alpha-male or two running other places who still feels humiliated at not being top dog of the world.

I think Kdaffy provides the perfect example. Better to be a humiliated top dog, than a top dog out of a job.

Funny thing is Libs understand the need for police to curb alpa males in our own domain. They fail to see why this might need to be done outside our domain.

Clue: borders are no longer limits on alpha males. At least not like they once were.

There seem to be a bunch of guys out there who have decided there are no rules but the will to power. It happens from time to time. Read your history.

|2.6.05 @ 12:40PM|#

M. Simon:

The alternative to detention/torture is battlefield torture then death.

You should have said that it is *one* alternative.
But whatever, there is no justification for torture. The best alternative is for our government to bring the troops home now.

|2.6.05 @ 12:49PM|#

M.Simon

We went to war for the usual reasons

There were no good reasons for the attack on Iraq.
The chief proponents of the war had long believed that it would be good for the Israeli state.

Those who launched The 9/11 attacks against us were motivated in reaction to our government's interventionist actions in the Mid-east.