Will this be the face of American justice?

However deceptive and arrogant Bush’s march to war was, however incompetent its execution, however suspect its motives, nothing, not even loss of life, is as despicable and deplorable as the humiliation, abuse and torture of prisoners of war by Americans at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and elsewhere. Nothing under this administration has done more to stain the flag than the bloody images of this torture, seen around the world and burned into the eyes of our would-be friends in the Arab world.

As with all of his mistakes, President Bush won’t take responsibility. Don Rumsfeld kept his job (a regular Dagwood Bumstead, that man). A few rotten eggs, conservatives say.

But the Bush administration endorsed torture, even if they didn’t commit it with their own hands. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo advocating that neither the War Crimes Act of 1996 nor the Geneva Conventions should apply to the so-called war on terror. And the head of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel, Jay Bybee, wrote Gonzales a 50-page memo asserting that torture “may be justified” and laws against it “may be unconstitutional.” This memo became the basis of new CIA field guidelines. Are we to believe that these are merely historical documents? That it’s just a coincidence?

Bybee is now a federal judge. And in a perverse, Orwellian twist, Gonzales is up for promotion to the represent our nation in the Department of Justice. Four years ago we thought there couldn’t have been a worse man for the job than John Ashcroft – I guess we were wrong!

In long and grinding confirmation hearing yesterday, although he said he found it “disgusting,” Gonzales repeatedly refused to disavow torture as a valid and legal method, thus renewing his endorsement. Let me emphasize: he said he thinks torture is bad, but he held to his legal position that the president was free to do it. Apparently he still doesn’t understand the gravity of his colossal misjudgment. Sure, as he asserted under questioning from Lindsey Graham, the lawless terrorists we face do worse. But we have higher standards – we are supposed to be what we once were, a model of integrity and a beacon of justice and the rule of law for the world. The photographs from Abu Ghraib show how turning on a narrow, dubious legalism and making exceptions to our most fundamental values can cause an implosion of our moral weight.

Some Democrats might be tempted to give this man a free pass. He carries an impressive coming-up story, until his lackluster career with Governor and President Bush. And there are rumors from the right that he may be ambiguous on abortion. But politics-as-usual pales in comparison with the notion that this man may be one of the officials most responsible for American torture in the 21st century. And if Golzales squeaks by now, he will have an easy time when Bush nominates him for the Supreme Court.

Even today, after the images from Abu Ghraib and as more revelations come out from Guantanamo, even today, when the German government appears to validate the story of a German who was kidnapped and interrogated for five months because he has a name similar to a suspect, there are those who defend torture and the elimination of protections for the innocent. This disgusting exceptionalism hurts us in our reputation abroad and our basic values at home. To nominate Gonzales is to endorse the endorser of torture. He must be stopped. FUGOP has list of petitions.