Alberto Gonzales and Bush Love Them Some Killin'

Read this book.



By Charlie Savage.


So far, it's almost overwhelming in its scope. But that in no way bogs down the reading. Then again, maybe the reading goes a little easier because of the shocking things I've learned, especially in regard to the history of powergrabs by presidents of both major parties. Hell, even Lincoln broke the law by stepping outside the bounds of his executive responsibilities. But that's a little more complicated and for another time.

For now, I wanted to relay a passage in regard to the disgraced former attorney general, Alberto Gonzales. You may have heard of Bush's record for number of inmates executed while he was governor of Texas. Let's all give him a round of applause. I'll wait.

All right, what I didn't know was former attorney general Gonzales' role in this proud Guinness book entry. After being elected governor, Bush named Gonzales, currently working for a corporate law firm, as his general counsel.

Here is a paragraph verbatim from the book that - I couldn't believe it myself - made me think even less of the man:

One of Gonzales's most important tasks had been to prepare briefings for Bush about death row prisoners on the mornings of their scheduled executions so that the governor could decide whether to grant clemency or to allow the sentence to be carried out. During Bush's six-year watch, 152 inmates were executed - a number unmatched by any other modern American governor. Gonzales had written clemency memos for the first 57 of them. Almost all of the petitions were marked "Confidential" and none of them was intended to see the light of day, but The Atlantic Monthly later obtained them through an open-government law. After comparing each briefing memo with the actual facts of each case, the magazine concluded that Gonzales had "repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence." Instead of telling Bush the best argument for why it might be appropriate to commute a given death sentence to life without parole - such as the fact that one thirty-three-year-old convict was severely retarded and had been abused as a child, two issues that his defense lawyer had incompetently failed to bring up at sentencing - Gonzales largely confined his briefings to reciting details of the convict's crimes. But Bush, a strong supporter of the death penalty who had made clear that he was not interested in stopping executions, was pleased with his counsel's approach.



Me again. This is yet another example of Bush not wanting to bog down his efficient decision-making with details, facts, nuances, etc., and surrounding himself with just the right goons not to bother him with such things.