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Bush names Gonzales to replace Ashcroft
Successor for attorney general is friend, associate from Texas

J. Scott Applewhite / AP file
President-elect Bush listens to Alberto Gonzales, his choice as White House general counsel, during a ceremony in Austin, Texas, in 2000. FREE VIDEO


• Bush nominates Gonzales
Nov. 10: President Bush nominates Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General, commending his ‘sharp intellect and sound judgment.’
MSNBC


NBC News and news services
Updated: 4:13 p.m. ET Nov. 10, 2004WASHINGTON - President Bush named White House counsel Alberto Gonzales as attorney general on Wednesday, picking the administration’s most prominent Hispanic for a highly visible post in the war on terror.

“His sharp intellect and sound judgment have helped shape our policies in the war on terror,” Bush said of the man who has served as the White House’s top lawyer over the past four years.

In an announcement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Bush outlined Gonzales’ personal story — a boy who grew up in a family of eight children in a two-bedroom house in Texas and is now in line for a Cabinet post.

If confirmed by the Senate, the 49-year-old Texan would become the first Hispanic to hold the job as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

He would succeed John Ashcroft, who announced his resignation on Tuesday, along with Commerce Secretary Don Evans.

Bush met Wednesday with Secretary of State Colin Powell, another figure being closely watched for signs of whether he will stay on for a second term. Powell has been largely noncommittal when asked about his plans.

When asked about Powell's future with the administration, Bush said Powell was doing a great job, but did not address whether he would be staying on. Bush was answering reporters' questions at the White House during a visit with the secretary general of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

‘Less polarizing’
Even before Bush formally announced his choice of Gonzales for attorney general, one Senate Democrat welcomed the appointment of “someone less polarizing” to the position. “We will have to review his record very carefully, but I can tell you already he’s a better candidate than John Ashcroft,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Profile Alberto R. Gonzales

AGE-BIRTH DATE
49, Born Aug. 4, 1955, in San Antonio, Texas.
EDUCATION
Attended U.S. Air Force Academy; bachelor's degree from Rice University, 1979; law degree from Harvard University, 1982.
EXPERIENCE
White House counsel (2001-present); Texas Supreme Court justice (1999-2000); Texas secretary of state (1997-1999); Texas governor's general counsel (1995-1997); corporate attorney with Houston law firm Vinson & Elkins (1982-1995).
FAMILY
Wife, Rebecca, and three sons.
NICKNAME
Called "the judge" by White House colleagues. Known as Al to friends.

Gonzales’ career has been linked with Bush for at least a decade, serving as general counsel when Bush was governor of Texas, and then as secretary of state and as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court.

Gonzales has been at the center of developing Bush’s positions on balancing civil liberties with waging the war on terrorism—opening the White House counsel to the same line of criticism that has dogged Ashcroft.

For instance, Gonzales publicly defended the administration’s policy — essentially repudiated by the Supreme Court and now being fought out in the lower courts — of detaining certain terrorism suspects for extended periods without access to lawyers or courts.

Controversial positions
He also wrote a controversial February 2002 memo in which Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture law and international treaties providing protections to prisoners of war. That position drew fire from human rights groups, which said it helped led to the type of abuses uncovered in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it expected the Senate to closely examine those issues during confirmation hearings. The ACLU said it had no position on Gonzales, but added: “Particular attention should be devoted to exploring Mr. Gonzales’ proposed policies on the constitutionality of the Patriot Act, the Guantanamo Bay detentions, the designation of United States citizens as enemy combatants and reproductive rights.”

Some conservatives also have quietly questioned Gonzales’ credentials on core social issues. And he once was a partner in a Houston law firm which represented the scandal-ridden energy giant Enron.

Gonzales would be the first Hispanic attorney general.

Vacancy in counsel position
But shifting him to Justice would create a vacancy in the White House counsel’s office.

Bush advisers said two people would be naturals for the job. One is White House staff secretary Brett Kavanaugh, a lawyer who has been waiting nearly 16 months for confirmation on the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He was also a top lawyer in two cases that dogged the Clinton White House. As associate independent counsel under Kenneth Starr, he worked on both the long-running Whitewater case and the 1998 Clinton impeachment case.

Harriet Miers, a deputy chief of staff who was once Bush’s personal lawyer, would be another candidate, one Bush adviser said.

Ashcroft announced his resignation on Tuesday, along with Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a Texas friend of the president’s.

The gospel-singing son of a minister, Ashcroft is a fierce conservative who doesn’t drink, smoke or dance. His detractors said he gave religion too prominent a role at the Justice Department—including optional prayer meetings with staff before each work day. He has also been a willing lightning rod for critics who said his policies for thwarting terrorists infringed on the rights of innocent people.

Lightening rod
Ashcroft championed many of the most controversial government actions following the Sept. 11 attacks, most notably the USA Patriot Act. It bolstered FBI surveillance powers, increased use of material witness warrants to hold suspects incommunicado for months. When there was a break in a terror case, he was the man at the lectern soberly informing the American people.

“The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved,” he said in resignation letter to Bush, dated Nov. 2 — Election Day.

McClellan said Bush got the letter that same day, before the results of the election were known.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., voiced pleasure Wednesday with Ashcroft’s departure and exhorting Bush “to make good on his promise of renewed bipartisan cooperation” with Democrats.

Evans, Bush’s 2000 campaign chairman and close friend of more than three decades, said he longed to return to Texas.

Bush was considering this year’s campaign money man, Mercer Reynolds, for Evans’ job. As national finance chairman for the Bush campaign, Reynolds raised more than $260 million to get him re-elected.

NBC's David Gregory and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” Benjamin Franklin, 1759