Divisive Issue Is Decisive for Some
Abortion Drives Wedge Between Conservatives and Gonzales
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 7, 2005; Page A04
To conservative activists, the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing a right to abortion is a constitutional abomination, the most outrageous misuse of the court's power since the justices voted to deny African Americans citizenship in the 1857 Dred Scott case.
But Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a possible Supreme Court nominee, has never voiced such a harsh assessment of the Roe decision. At least twice he has called it "the law of the land."
In each of his high-profile government roles -- as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, as White House counsel and as attorney general -- he has shown little personal zeal for the antiabortion cause.
Perhaps more than any other aspect of Gonzales's record, it is his cautious attitude toward Roe that fuels the conservative groundswell against his possible elevation to the high court.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/06/AR2005070602014.html