Alberto Gonzalez As the grandson of illegal immigrants, Alberto Gonzalez has certainly risen through the ranks in both the legal system and politics in the United States. His early association with George W Bush has certainly been a contributing factor in his successful career. Alberto Gonzalez was born on August 4th 1955 in San Antonio, Texas to Pablo, a construction worker and Maria Gonzalez the mother of his seven brothers and sisters. He grew up in Humble near Houston, Texas and attended MacArthur High School as an honours student. By 1973 Gonzalez had enlisted with the United States Air Force for a four year term where he served two years at Fort Yukon, Alaska, and two years as a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Before he began his third year at the academy he transferred to Rice University in Houston, Texas. He completed his education with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1982. After leaving university Gonzalez married his first wife Diane Clemens whom he was divorced from in 1985. Gonzalez then went on to marry Rebecca Turner and together they now have three sons. His career path took him on to serve as an attorney in a private practice in Houston from 1982 until 1994 where he also became a partner.
In 1997 he was appointed by George W Bush to the position of Secretary of State of Texas and in 1999 he was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court, again by George W Bush. In 1996, as Bush’s council, Alberto managed to have the Governor excused from jury service on a Drunk Driving case based on the fact that as the governor he may be called upon to pardon the accused in the case. Gonzalez was remiss in mentioning that Bush had also had a drunk driving conviction in 1976. Again in 2003, as Bush’s council’ Gonzalez was found to have given insufficient information when reviewing death sentences in Texas and only one sentence was over turned. The state of Texas executed more prisoners during Gonzalez's term, and still has more prisoners on death row, than any other state Gonzalez’s career has been peppered with controversy from his 2001 attempt to place limitations on the Freedom of Information Act restricting access to the records of former presidents to a memo in 2002 regarding the Geneva Conventions ruling on the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where he argued that it was out of date to provide Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters with "commissary privileges, scrip, athletic uniforms, and scientific instruments". In 2004 when the memo was released to the press Gonzalez said he did not recall whether or not he was in agreement with all of the analysis, but he did not have a disagreement with the conclusions then reached by the department. Among his other controversial issues was his fight with Congress to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy task force documents from being reviewed. Gonzalez was also an early advocate of the controversial USA Patriot Act. He is also accused of being involved in the decision to allow foreign combatants in U.S. custody to be deported to nations that allow torture. On November 10, 2004, it was announced that he would be nominated to replace United States Attorney General John Ashcroft for Bush's second term in office.
Amid opposition Gonzalez was confirmed by the Senate in February 2005 making him the highest ranking Hispanic ever in the U.S. Government. Alberto Gonzalez is a supporter of abortion rights. It has often been expected that George W Bush would appoint Gonzalez to Chief Justice but this has not happened despite the death of William Rehnquist in 2005 when John Roberts was appointed and in 2005 when Samuel Alito was nominated and confirmed to the position of Associate Justice. Probably one of Gonzalez's biggest controversies began in December 2007 when eight United States Attorneys were dismissed by the United States Department of Justice. This was seen as a deliberate act to remove Democratic supporters from the Department Of Justice and replace them with Republican supporters who would be more supportive to the Bush administration. At least six of the eight had positive internal Justice Department performance reports giving no rise to them being removed from their positions. Gonzalez has repeatedly insisted that he was not involved in the “deliberations” in the firings of the Attorneys but subsequently released emails proved to be to the contrary. Gonzalez was due to give a prepared testimony on April 17th 2007 before Congress, but this was postponed due to the Virginia Tech massacres, until April 19th 2007. A number of members of both houses of Congress have publicly said Gonzalez should resign, or be fired by Bush. Calls for his ouster intensified after his testimony on April 19th 2007. ABB |
