Hispanic Groups Reconsider Their Support for Gonzales: Some won't even talk about him

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Hispanic Groups Reconsider Their Support for Gonzales
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 29, 2007; Page A03


Brent Wilkes said LULAC "hoped for better" from Alberto Gonzales. (Alex Wong - Getty Images)

Two years ago, major Hispanic groups broke with other civil rights organizations and supported Alberto R. Gonzales's nomination for attorney general, primarily because he would become the highest-ranking Latino ever in a presidential Cabinet.

Now, these groups say they are suffering from buyer's remorse.

"I have to say we were in error when we supported him to begin with," said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Gonzales, Wilkes said, has not aggressively pursued hate crimes and cases of police profiling of Hispanics. "We hoped for better. Instead it looks like he's done the bidding of the White House."

Janet Murguia, president and chief executive of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic rights group, called Gonzales "a follower, not a leader." In the Hispanic community, she said, "people are conflicted. They are excited that a Latino had a chance to serve as the attorney general." But, she added, "I think we've been disappointed with his record so far."

Activists have criticized La Raza and LULAC for backing Gonzales. Critics questioned how these groups could support, in the name of ethnic solidarity, a man who had a role in permitting more aggressive interrogation techniques to be used on terrorism suspects held in Cuba and elsewhere.

A few rights organizations that once backed Gonzales now refuse to talk about him. Gilbert Moreno, president of the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, said, "We're not really in a position to comment." Gonzales once sat on his organization's board.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which offered enthusiastic support for Gonzales, also declined to discuss him. William Ramos, director of the organization's Washington office, said, "We provided a support letter, yes," then hung up....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052801139.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[badgerpup]

1. This has got to hurt.

He was carrying the flag, so to speak, for a lot of people...and he let them down BIG time.
It's going to make it that much harder for another Latino/Latina to hold such a high-ranking position, thanks to "Can't Recall" Gonzales.

'Buyer's remorse', hell. I'd be feeling 'Betrayal', myself.

[wellst0nev0ter]

2. We All Knew Who He Was Before He Was Nominated

It's too bad those groups let straight line identiy politics cloud their judgements. It's like the NAACP supporting Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. a.m. kick

[UTUSN]

4. What's to be "conflicted" about? More JUNK from JERKS, dimbulbs like the Iraq Attackers

Just as with the Iraq Attack as a phony personal Shrub vendetta, almost all of us here KNEW GONZALES was a houseboy without our needing any special resources of "inside" information. Ah, yaas, all those SO intelligent people up above wring their hands and believe what they think will advance their personal greed--whether the greed takes the form of power, money, or ambition.

Ruben NAVARRETTE, the Shrub tool, similarly backed GONZALES, demanding that he NOT be put through the confirmation mill, heck, demanding that he not even be vetted. He demanded that GONZALES be installed JUST because of being an Hispanic---a RACIST position. He claimed that Shrub and the Rethugs have promoted more Hispanics than Dems and CLINTON ever did. He tended to forget the social programs the Dems advance and the Rethugs kill off. He's more impressed with 3 or so top jobs instead of help for MILLIONS. NAVARRETTE claimed that he would, after the installation, be watching GONZO like a hawk and would be the first to jump his bones if he fucked up. HAH!!1 Yeah, just like O.J. on the golf course, looking for those pesky killers.

[gratuitous]

5. The executive director of LULAC is named Brent Wilkes?

Hmmm.

Anyway, this is the inherent danger in "identity" politics. It's real tempting to back people who look like oneself, or to presume that because someone shares part of our identity that that person will seek to advance that portion of our shared identity ahead of all other considerations, or even most other considerations. For some people, the principle they most closely cling to is "more for me, and screw you," and that cuts across all other considerations, whether its ethnic background, sexual orientation, or some other feature that makes you think a person will side with "us," however that might be defined. As William Powell said in "Libeled Lady," when he's talking with distrustful heiress Myrna Loy, "Ring every coin you meet."

[UTUSN]

6. LULAC's core philosophy has always been the "assimilation" route (Anglicizing) n/t