Charles Schumer, quoted in Newsday
"We will have to review his record very carefully, but I can tell you already he's a better candidate than John Ashcroft," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, which will consider Gonzalez' nomination. Still, Gonzalez has his own civil liberties baggage. He wrote a controversial February 2002 memo in which President George W. Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture laws and treaties designed to protect prisoners of war.
Note that Gonzalez called the Geneva Convention "quaint" in that memo.
Schumer also voted for the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, and the Defense of Marriage Act (as a congressman).
