Alberto Gonzales' Difficult Past

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Sat Mar 17, 2007 at 10:57:20 PM EST
Tags: Alberto Gonzales (all tags)

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The Chicago Tribune has some new details about the difficulties Attorney General Alberto Gonzales overcame in his life:

Gonzales' father was arrested for drunken driving five times in 17 years covering much of Gonzales' childhood and adolescence. Pablo Gonzales died in an industrial accident in 1982 when Gonzales was at Harvard Law School.

A younger brother, Rene Gonzales, died under mysterious circumstances in 1980. In 1991, the same year Alberto Gonzales became one of the first Hispanic partners at the white shoe Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins, his younger sister Theresa pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. Nine years later, while Gonzales was on the Texas Supreme Court, his mother and another brother signed over their houses to a bail bondsman to raise bail for Theresa after she was charged with the same offense.

Most of these details did not arise in his Senate confirmation hearings, even though they might reasonably have been thought to affect his views about crime, drug and alcohol policy, and sentencing--all issues overseen or influenced by an attorney general.

What does the omissions of these details mean?

More...

Their omissions illustrate the remarkable extent to which Gonzales, 51, has managed to control the telling of his life story and the impenetrability of his outwardly mild and friendly manner.

They are also a function of Gonzales' peculiar rise to power, an official whose career in government, first in Texas and then in Washington, has been under the protective wing of a single man. Since 1995, Gonzales has worked exclusively in jobs given to him by George W. Bush.

As for how Gonzales hooked up with Bush:

Through service in the Texas State Bar Association, Gonzales met Harriet Miers of Dallas, who until January was White House counsel.

In the 1990s, Miers was Bush's personal lawyer and helped bring Gonzales into the inner circle of the soon-to-be candidate for governor of Texas.

Gonzales' entire career since then has been Bush-driven:

In the ensuing years, Gonzales has been a Bush retainer exclusively, serving as general counsel, Texas secretary of state, Texas Supreme Court justice and White House counsel before taking the helm of the Justice Department in February 2005.

Shorter version: He was never equi