Albatross for 2: Gonzalez and sore losers

[iamjoy]

I can't believe it, this columnist is usually more moderate!

snip
Despite the harsh rhetoric from the left, a majority of Senate Democrats joined Republicans to confirm Rice as secretary of state Wednesday. It's telling that among the yes votes were California Sen. Diane Feinstein and Connecticut's Christopher Dodd. You can't get much more liberal than Dodd. (OK, maybe Ted Kennedy, who was among the 12 Democrats and one independent who voted against her.)

snip
Gonzales, it can be argued, was simply doing what good lawyers do when rationalizing detaining enemy combatants who were independent of any country. Legally, they might not have the protection of the Geneva Conventions. I disagreed with that view from the get-go, but it would be unfair to make Gonzales the "architect" of a White House policy post 9-11 that was backed by millions. Gonzales was just one player in the grand scheme of things.

Lawyers do what their jobs call them to do. If you represent a president who wants a legal rationale for detaining prisoners, you find that rationale. If you represent an accused killer, you try to get him off, based on whatever evidence you can find to build a case that there's "reasonable doubt," even if your gut suspects your client did the crime.


snip
Let's face it: It's payback for an election lost. Rice got a reprieve, perhaps because there's less of a paper trail about her positions, compared to Gonzales, who served as a Texas Supreme Court justice.


full article (free registration required, or remember bugmenot.com)
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpmarquez27012705jan27,1,3603497.column?coll=orl-opinion-headlines

[Inland]

1. Well, hard to argue with that.

Premise One: lawyers do whatever their clients want

Premise two: if client wants the lawyer to ignore the law and pretend that there is legal justification for a despicable act, that's the client's fault alone, because of premise one

Here's an idea: if lawyers really are merely tools who perform every task their evil clients request, then let's not have a lawyer as AG. Let's have a dentist. No dentist is expected to do whatever evil, bad and sinister dental work just because a patient asks. But a lawyer's job is to write fraudulent memos that he, and his client, knows are so false that they keep them secret lest they cause gasps of horror.

[iamjoy]

2. Not So Hard To Argue

I wrote a response to the columnist asking what if President Bush (it turns my stomach to refer to him as such, but it is necessary when trying to converse with moderates and be taken seriously) asked the AG to come up with justification for allowing local law enforcement agencies to ignore the fourth, fifth, etc amendments when they are trying to get confessions from criminal suspects? I would hope my AG would counsel the President that it was a bad idea. But Gonzalez is perhaps too close to Bush to criticize or question, and we know his history. So Gonzalez would probably write the domestic equivelant of the torture memo, perhaps calling due process quaint. And, if Republicans get their way with judicial nominees, the policy would be upheld by courts.

I actually had mixed feelings about Gonzalez until I read what this columnist wrote about a lawyer just doing his job...and then all that above occurred to me.

[EC]

3. No

"Gonzales, it can be argued, was simply doing what good lawyers do when rationalizing detaining enemy combatants who were independent of any country. Legally, they might not have the protection of the Geneva Conventions. I disagreed with that view from the get-go, but it would be unfair to make Gonzales the "architect" of a White House policy post 9-11 that was backed by millions. Gonzales was just one player in the grand scheme of things.

Lawyers do what their jobs call them to do. If you represent a president who wants a legal rationale for detaining prisoners, you find that rationale. If you represent an accused killer, you try to get him off, based on whatever evidence you can find to build a case that there's "reasonable doubt," even if your gut suspects your client did the crime."


NO, HE WAS DOING WHAT SMARMY LAWYERS DO

[KissMeKate]

4. Biden opposes-

Sen Biden, Democrat, Delaware, opposes Gonzales. After Rice, i am surprised.

Thank you sen Biden!!!