Gonzales is even more liberal than O'Connor.
How do we know Gonzales is more liberal than O'Connor? From his Texas record? I agree, GWB should nominate only an originalist like Scalia/Thomas. Of the five member majority in the property case, only two were appointed by a Democrat. Stevens, Kennedy and Souter were appointed by Republicans, when Democrats had the Senate by the throat.
FROM GONZALES'S SPEECHES (He is not a liberal):
http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches.html
"For victims, another key aspect of any fair and equitable criminal justice system is to ensure that those convicted of crimes serve tough and fair sentences."
"We saw evidence of that leadership in the weeks and months following September 11 th, as the President led the bipartisan effort to enact the PATRIOT Act to give law enforcement the tools we need to seize the initiative against our enemies, wherever they plot or hide. "
" The Department of Justice has one the federal government’s 10 Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. In partnership with caring and compassionate community-based groups, we are linking at-risk teens to mentors, providing drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and helping men and women released from prison re-enter their communities as productive citizens. "
"The Department has also actively enforced Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which requires employers to make a reasonable accommodation of employees’ religious needs"
He is unjustly smeared by the pro-lifers because he strictly construed the Texas parental notification act in Texas. He was in the majority, all Republicans, who ruled that way.
The Texas legislature fixed the statutory defect, and just recently changed it from parental notification to parental consent.
Nevertheless, the one-issue pro-life crowd has hounded him ever since, completely disregarding the fact that he screened all of Bush's choice for judicial slots including Priscilla Owen, David Pryor, and Janice Brown.
Owen was Gonzales's colleague on the Texas Supreme Court who wrote the dissent on the notification case. Yet he was instrumental in getting her appointment to the fifth circuit. Why would a liberal do that?
A liberal wouldn't, and Gonzales is no liberal. He rules on the law as it is written, not how he wants it to be written. That's a strict constructionist.
Is he my first choice? I don't know. Having to recuse himself on some cases is not helpful. How many that would be is probably small at this point. But it gets larger the longer he serves as AG.
There are many outstanding choices to choose from. I think Bush will pick a strict constructionist.