President George Bush has nominated White House legal counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft, who turned in his resignation yesterday.
Gonzales, a former Texas Supreme Court justice who considered a likely candidate for the Supreme Court, is a long time confidant of Bush’s.
Bush announced his nomination Wednesday afternoon at the White House. "His [Gonzales'] sharp intellect and sound judgment have helped shape our policies in the war on terror," Bush said, highlighting the nominee's role in the war on terror.
Gonzales will need to be confirmed by the Senate, where he may face opposistion that could mirror the difficulty Ashcroft had winning his confirmation, in a large part because of his role in the war on terror.
Gonzales was the author of a controversial memorandum to Bush that stated that rights provided prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention on should not apply to al-Qaida or Taliban prisoners, a memorandum often cited in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal as encouraging torture.
Bush also made a few comments on Ashcroft's service during his tenure as attorney general, praising him for his role in the war on terror and for combating child pornography. "And thanks to John Ashcroft's leadership, America has stepped up its efforts to prosecute the cruel exploitation of children by Internet pornographers."
