Here are some interesting pieces of information about Alberto Gonzales who apparently will be our new Attorney General, from TalkLeft archives:

• He disagreed with President Bush's nomination of Priscilla Owen for a 5th Circuit judgeship:

The [New York] Times points out that at one time even President Bush's own White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales, charged Owen (in a dissenting opinion) with engaging in "unconscionable . . . judicial activism."

The Houston Chronicle stated in a July, 2002 editorial, "It doesn't take a raving pinko to catch on to Owen's act. Actually, it was pointed out very astutely by Alberto R. Gonzales, now Bush's White House counsel, when he was on the state's top civil court with her."

• He was considered to be one of Bush's top choices for the Supreme Court.

• He authored 57 death row clemency opinions for President Bush. The Atlantic Monthly wrote:

As the legal counsel to Texas Governor George W. Bush, Alberto R. Gonzales — now the White House counsel, and widely regarded as a likely future Supreme Court nominee—prepared 57 confidential death-penalty memoranda for Bush's review. Never before discussed publicly, the memoranda suggest that Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise Bush of some of the most salient issues in the cases at hand.

The memos can be read by Atlantic Monthly subscribers here.