Ups and downs

You're right, I am going to criticize Alberto Gonzalez. Just because he's the best we can hope for now from the Bush Administration doesn't mean he shouldn't face the gauntlet.

More than anything else, what the Guantanamo Bay memo says to me is that AG Gonzalez is willing to actively ignore what the law says in order to to produce the result he wants. That's marginally all right if you're White House Counsel. Twisting the law to produce the result you want is all right if you're a judge: God knows the other SCOTUS members do it enough. But simply ignoring what the law says because you find it inconvenient is a recipe for a decline in the prestige and authority of the court that none of us want to see. Want to live in the era of the Taney Court: Reloaded? Neither do I, no matter how their decisions break.

Besides, Charles Krauthammer seemed a little too pleased with his lemon-faced self on NPR today about Miers "withdrawing." I almost expected him to end with: "Fools! An entire legion of ideologue judicial candidates awaits you! Oh, I'm afraid Michael Luttig will be quite operational when your Democratic Congress arrives." When good ol' Charles breaks down in tears on MSNBC, I'll relax.

I was in the car with [EDIT: I've let paranoia get the better of me; the person I was talking to still has an active legal career, and it wouldn't do to put him down blackguarding a fourth circuit judge, as will occur shortly. If you really want to know who I was in the car with, and don't know already, shoot me an e-mail or post a request in the comments thread]. He had, as usual, a font of interesting things to say, but two in particular which were interesting and relevant to this blog's subject matter:

1) He knows and likes Patrick Fitzgerald. [Want the source for this knowledge? See above.] He defended an individual that Mr. Fitzgerald prosecuted. He described Mr. Fitzgerald as a fair play prosecutor, and a genuine, down-to-earth individual. Score a nice character reference for Fitzmas.

2) He knows and dislikes Michael Luttig. Luttig, the once (and future?) candidate for a SCOTUS post, is apparently a thug and a boor, just as I surmised when I voted my fears and laid $20 on him in the SCOTUS pool lo these many moons ago. By the way, if Luttig is in, do I still win that pool, or did it lapse when it looked like Miers and Roberts were going to be the stiffs in the seats?