TribBlog: What Fredo Learned

Three choice quotes from former Texas Supreme Court Justice, former Texas Secretary of State and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, now teaching law school at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, who was interviewed for the "What I've Learned" feature in the January 2010 issue of Esquire:

I used the word quaint in referring to provisions in the Geneva Conventions that require the signatories to provide the prisoners of war privileges like commissary privileges, scientific instruments, athletic uniforms. I think those provisions are quaint. I did not say nor did I intend to say that the basic principles of the Geneva Conventions in providing for humane treatment were quaint. So if I had to do it again, what I would not do is use the word quaint and the Geneva Conventions in the same sentence.

Putting my lawyer hat aside, the notion that we'd have to get legalistic about torture, yeah, can be offensive to me. It's inconsistent with American values.

We should have abandoned the idea of removing the U. S. attorneys once the Democrats took the Senate. Because at that point we could really not count on Republicans to cut off investigations or help us at all with investigations. We didn't see that at the Department of Justice. Nor did the White House see that. Karl didn't see it. If we could do something over again, that would be it.