AG is the new AG

I told a friend yesterday morning that I would be happy that John Ashcroft had finally resigned if his replacement didn't turn out to be worse. Stupid, Kathryn, stupid, stupid, stupid. Had to go and tempt fate.

Alberto Gonzales is worse. He's the one who called the Geneva Convention quaint and obselete. He was the one who wrote a memo advising the Bush administration to declare an open-ended war on terror, because it would allow them to quash civil liberties. He was one of the main architects of policies which led to the unconscionable abuse at Abu Ghraib. But he's Hispanic, so his appointment is a Victory! (For an administration so opposed to affirmative action, they are damn quick to trumpet every minority appointment as such.)

What I've read about him since yesterday morning has convinced me that he is as hardline on domestic civil liberties as Ashcroft, and even more radical in his embrace of tactics like torture in the rest of the world.

Also, he is one of GWB's closest confidants, and has been since W's days as Texas governor. This kind of relationship between the White House and the DOJ can only strengthen the bubble which W lives in. It will make him more insulated than ever from the opinions and arguments of the opposition at home and abroad. Of all the dangerous aspects of the current administration, its inability to listen to outside voices seems to me to be the most dangerous.

UPDATE: Talk Left has a rundown of opposition to Gonzales' appointment, as does Winning Argument.