From Holden:

It looks as though Chimpy wants to make White House counsel Alberto Gonzales Attorney General. Dems need to fight this appointment, and Gonzales himself has provided them with plenty of ammunition.

As Bush’s chief counsel when he was governor of Texas Gonzales once famously asserted that since Texas was not a signatory to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations the treaty (adopted by the U. S. in 1969) did not apply to the Lone Star State.

But Gonzales’s talent for brushing aside international and domestic law really showed itself once the administration decided to torture Afghan detainees. While serving as White House counsel he has authored one memorandum to the president declaring the Geneva Conventions to be “quaint” and “obsolete” and co-authored a report that sought to circumvent both U.S. and international laws prohibitting torture.

Should Gonzales indeed be nominated for the position of Attorney General democrats must respond by focusing attention on this adminstration’s policies on torture as well as Gonzales’ role in justifying those policies.