Gonzales Tipped To Replace Ashcroft

UPDATE: This has just been confirmed by Bush. Time to call your local Congressman, folks...

The departing US Attorney-General, John Ashcroft, may be replaced by Alberto Gonzales, the man who penned the memo "authorizing" Bush to abandon the Geneva Convention. MSNBC says White House sources are suggesting Gonzales will replace Ashcroft:

"Gonzales publicly defended the administration's policy - essentially repudiated by the Supreme Court and now being fought out in the lower courts - of detaining certain terrorism suspects for extended periods without access to lawyers or courts.

He also wrote a controversial February 2002 memo in which Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture law and international treaties providing protections to prisoners of war. That position drew fire from human rights groups, which said it helped led to the type of abuses uncovered in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal."

Worse yet, Gonzales is also being considered a favourite for the Supreme Court. Unbelieveable.

Ashcroft, let us remember, only got the job after being beaten by a dead man for a seat in the Senate (the Democrats' candidate, Mel Carnahan, was killed in a plane crash after ballots were printed, but voters still backed him). Once in charge, Ashcroft ordered staff to cover up nude statues. Small wonder such a small-minded man became responsible for the Patriot Act and various Gitmos around the world...

In his hand-written letter of resignation, Ashcroft boasted that "the objective of securing America from crime and terror has been achieved". Yet Ashcroft also explained that the letter was hand-written "so its confidentiality can be maintained." Ironique, n'est-ce pas?

Other names being mentioned for the AG position include Ashcroft's former deputy, Larry Thompson, who would be the first black to serve as attorney-general; the former New York City mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, who is a lawyer; and the former Alabama attorney-general, Bill Pryor, who is now serving temporarily as a judge.