Now the scariest thought possible–there is speculation that Bush is considering naming Torturer of the Year as our next supreme court justice. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, already an embarrassment as the Attorney General, and now a Supreme Court justice?

The thought is too sickening to even consider. At least as Attorney General, he can be hidden in a basement somewhere, as was Ashcroft, when he became too embarrassing for even Bush to handle. But as a judge on the highest bench in the nation, that just isn’t possible.

Although, a saving grace is that he seems to be disliked across party lines, and ideologic lines, as either not being conservative enough, being too conservative, or just being too much of a monster to be anywhere except in prison. Or in one of the torture chambers that he likes so much.

From SF Gate:

He is not a favorite of the conservatives, some of whom are lobbying quietly against him. They are not convinced that his views on issues such as abortion and affirmative action are aligned far enough to the right.

Yet, Gonzales is a loyal friend of the president’s. Gonzales is Hispanic, one of the fast growing voting blocs. Bush might be willing to accept a chilly reception from his far right constituency to make history, reward a friend and lessen the chance of having a more conservative nominee blocked in the Senate.

I really wish we’d get off this Hispanic bit, as though Gonzales really has anything in common with the Mexican immigrants picking strawberries under the hot California sun, or with the Hispanic women who work as maids–cleaning toilets and scrubbing parquet floors. The fact that he is “Hispanic” doesn’t make him a good man or a bad man. It just merely represents his background. Yeah, yeah, he’s the second of eight children, grew up in a two-bedroom house in Houston, so let’s get out the violins. He rose above his circumstances, his poverty, prejudice, to become–well, he could have become something great. Instead, he became a man who helped construct “questionable” U.S. policies on the treatment of foreign prisoners (translation–thinks torture is a-ok) and evaded questions having to do with the war on terror.

I wish that we would, as a nation, reach the point where we don’t feel we have to select candidates because we need a black, white, Asian, woman, gay, transgender, conjoined twin, chimeric, mulatto, Cheyenne, Inuit, etc. Afterall, would putting someone like Anne Coulter on the bench really be representative of the “woman’” opinion? Only if you loved guns and don’t think women should have the right to vote, I suppose.

Or in the case of Gonzalez, does being an advocate for torture, and being coy about his views on issues such as abortion because he’s afraid of offending the Bushies? As a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, Gonzales voted in favor of a pregnant teen’s right to abortion without notifying her parents, so in that sense, it sounds like he may not be likely to vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade. I consider that a plus, but it bothers me how people like him seesaw back and forth and won’t come right and speak their mind. They try to please everyone and end up pleasing no one.

Anyway, the battle for the bench should be interesting. At stake are women’s reproductive rights and our environment–both imperative to he health of our nation.