Cronyism or not?

I'm sure that's going to be the debate over the next few days after John Ashcroft stepped down and Alberto Gonzalez was appointed. It's really hard to say as well because you just can't tell as an outsider looking in. Yes, sometimes it is easy. When the first President Bush created a new position as "Drug Czar" and appointed Bob Martinez the ex-governor of Florida to the post it was obviously political cronyism. Martinez had helped to deliver the state of Florida, a key swing state, to Bush in the election and was voted out two years later. I think it doesn't take a leap of faith, even from a Republican, to think that that action wasn't a big "thank you".

But it's tougher with the recent cases. I believe that you should appoint qualified, competent and good people to positions like these. However, I also believe that a good person will probably tend to have qualified, competent and good people as friends. So I would expect a good person to appoint their friends. If I was president 20 years from now, I wouldn't go searching for an AG. I would appoint my friend Mike. If you're the President of the US you can't afford to NOT trust your people.

Frankly, I'm less concerned with the cronyism charge then I am with Gonzalez's record. He appears to support the loosening of interrogation restrictions as well as supporting the indefinite detainment of PoWs. I feel that the very notion of indefinite detainment would have sent chills of horror down the founder's spines. I am not a particularly religious person and so you would expect me to believe that the ends justify the means but I've found that in my life I almost never use that form of justification with myself. It's anathema to me to think that we would ever torture someone for information. I can construct some scenarios in my head in which I believe that it would be right but they are so wildly absurd and hypothetical that a blanket, "no torture" policy would likely never need to be challenged. If a man who I watched murder a woman told me that he knew where another 50 women were being held and that they would die in the next hour I think I could bring myself to rough that guy up. But torture just to prove that a person doesn't know anything is about the most inhumane thing you can do to another human being (outside of rape I suppose). Abu Ghraib was a stain on America. Not for the contents of the pictures (which were, frankly, bizarre) but for the fact that someone somewhere thought that some of these things were good ideas.

Now, how much of that is attributable to Gonzalez? I just don't know.

Tune in next time for meaningful insights ;)