Alberto Gonzales: Unfit to Lead Justice Department

I do not need to belabor the torture memo problem facing Alberto Gonzales. That should be enough to disqualify him for the Attorney General position.

Nor do I have to point out how his inadequate advice to then Governor Bush of Texas led to the record executions in that state. That should be enough to disqualify him for the Attorney General position.

More revealing, and most disturbing, was his apparent total lack of ethics while sitting on the Texas Supreme Court. As reported:

Gonzales had been appointed to the bench in 1999 by then-Governor George W. Bush, but had to run in 2000 to keep his seat. That year, he accepted $2,000 from an insurance company after the court heard arguments -- but before it issued a decision -- as to how much the company should pay a man injured in a car accident. In a similar case, he voted in favor of another insurance company whose law firm gave his campaign $2,500 just before the court heard arguments.

Both cases involved whether insurance companies had to pay interest to plaintiffs whose final awards were delayed because the case went to court. The watchdog group said the decisions were ''a costly slap in the face to Texas consumers."

The group sarcastically called the donations ''prejudgment premiums" collected by Gonzales and another justice who voted in favor of the insurance industry.

There seems to be something wrong about taking payments while sitting in judgment in the highest court of the State of Texas. Or is it just me who sees something rotten in the whole affair.

There is a word for it and I found it in the dictionary. "g-r-a-f-t": As defined:

1. Unscrupulous use of one's position to derive profit or advantages; extortion.
2. Money or an advantage gained or yielded by unscrupulous means.

Why is it that this Administration must continue to practice questionable, and seemingly corrupt practices? Whether it be about Armstrong Williams receiving money for "good reporting" or Halliburton receiving no-bid contracts, the stench over this crowd is getting thick. Did Ken Lay advise Mr. Cheney on setting national energy policy? Will we ever know?

Senator Kerry, we need a return to Washington of decency, integrity, and the respect for the laws of our nation and the Constitution under which it was founded. Please leave that door open wide for 2008. 55 Million Americans want to walk through that door to a New America!

Bob