Grandstanding Senators – The Country Be Damned

In our post yesterday on the Alberto Gonzales hearings we said “wouldn’t it be nice if our Senators cut the grandstanding and just did what was best for the country? It’s hard to imagine they actually believe most of their own arguments. Maybe we will be proved wrong”. Before the hearings we predicted that Senators would spend most of their time listening to themselves talk and very little on listening to answers. Well, our predictions were right on target. Some selected quotes from the Senate hearings below:

"The policies include this nominee's role in developing interpretation of the law to justify harsh treatment of prisoners, harsh treatment that's tantamount to torture. America's troops and citizens are at greater risk because of those actions, the terrible repercussions throughout so much of the world. The searing photographs from Abu Ghraib have made it harder to create and maintain the alliances we need to prevail against the vicious terrorists who threaten us. And those abuses serve as recruiting posters for the terrorists." Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

"Would you not concede that your decision and the decision of the president to call into question the definition of torture, the need to comply with the Geneva Conventions, at least opened up a permissive environment of conduct?" asked Richard Durbin(D-IL)

Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), told Gonzales that policies he supported or helped formulate "have been used by the administration, the military and the CIA to justify torture and Geneva Convention violations by military and civilian personnel."

"The previous attorney general ran the most secretive Justice Department in my lifetime," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY). "Will you continue the John Ashcroft 'my way or the highway' approach, which often led to embarrassment?"

"You know there are going to be times when the attorney general of the United States has to enforce the law of the United States. He can't be worried about friends or colleagues at the White House. His duty is to all Americans," said Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senator Joe Biden harangued Gonzales for sidestepping tough questions, "This is not about your intelligence, this hearing is not about your competence, it's not about your integrity - it's about your judgment and your candor," he said. "We're looking for candor, old buddy. I love you, but you're not very candid so far." But Biden used up his allotted time with this unpunctuated sermon leaving Gonzales no time to speak, much less speak with candor.

A lot of talk about torture, Geneva Conventions and candor. What does this have to do with Alberto Gonzales and his fitness to be Attorney General? In reality nothing - it’s about the Democrats trying to draw a straight line from Abu Ghraib prisoner treatment to Gonzales to President Bush. Why would U.S. Senators want to do that? In our opinion it’s because they care more about tarnishing the President than the truth. It’s because they care more about grabbing personal power than protecting the country.


We wonder which one of the grandstanding Senator’s actually disagree with the following conclusion reached by Alberto Gonzales in the infamous January 22, 2002 memo to President Bush.

You have asked for our Office’s views concerning the effect of international treaties and federal laws on the treatment of individuals detained by the U.S. Armed Forces during the conflict in Afghanistan. In particular, you have asked whether certain treaties forming part of the laws of armed conflict apply to the conditions of detention and the procedures for trial of members of al Qaeda and the Taliban militia. We conclude that these Treaties do not protect members of the al Qaeda organization, which as a non-State actor cannot be a party to the international agreements governing war. We further conclude that the President has sufficient grounds to find that these treaties do not protect members of the Taliban militia. This memorandum expresses no view as to whether the President should decide, as a matter of policy, that the U.S. Armed Forces should adhere to the standards of conduct in !hose treaties with respect to the treatment of prisoners.

The memo’s summary seems pretty straight forward to us, al Qaeda and the Taliban militia are not covered under international treaties that governing war.


So why would these Senator’s want to paint a picture of the United States breaking treaties and international law, of torturing prisoners at the behest of the President? We used to believe our leaders would do what they believed was best for the country. These Senators are making it very hard for us to continue that belief. Do these Senators actually believe their own charges? We’ll see how they vote on Gonzales' confirmation.


You can find all of the “controversial” Gonzales memos here for a more in-depth understanding