Gonzales becomes first Hispanic U.S. attorney general 2005
On February 3, 2005, Alberto Gonzales won Senate confirmation
as the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general despite protests over
his record on torture.
The Senate approved his nomination on a largely party-line vote of
60-36, reflecting a split between Republicans and Democrats over whether
the administration’s counterterrorism policies had led to the abuse of
prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere. Shortly after the Senate vote, Vice
President Dick Cheney swore in Gonzales as attorney general in a small
ceremony in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. President Bush, who
was traveling, called to congratulate him.
Gonzales was born in 1955 in San Antonio, Texas, the son of migrant
workers and grew up in a small, crowded home in Houston without hot
water or a telephone. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1973 after
graduating high school. Following a few years of service, Gonzales
attended the U.S. Air Force Academy.
After leaving the military, Gonzales attended Rice University and
Harvard Law School before Bush, then governor of Texas, picked him in
1995 to serve as his general counsel in Austin and in 2001 brought him
to Washington as his White House counsel. In this new role, Gonzales
championed an extension of the USA Patriot Act.
After Gonzales became attorney general, he faced scrutiny regarding
some of his actions, most notably the firing of several U.S. attorneys
and his defense of Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program. The firings
became the subject of a Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007. Concerns
about the veracity of some of his statements as well as his general
competency also began to surface.
Democrats began calling for his resignation and for more
investigations, but President Bush defended his appointee, saying that
Gonzales was “an honest, honorable man in whom I have confidence,”
according to an Associated Press reportfromApril.
A few months later, however, Gonzales decided to step down.
On August 27, he gave a brief statement announcing his resignation
(effective September 17), stating that “It has been one of my greatest
privileges to lead the Department of Justice.” He gave no explanation
for his departure. In his resignation letter, Gonzales simply said that
“. . . this is the right time for my family and I to begina new chapter
in our lives.”
Gonzales and his wife Rebecca have three sons.
(More Events on This Day in History)
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Automotive
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Civil War
- 1865 Hampton Roads Conference
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Cold War
- 1950 Klaus Fuchs arrested for passing atomic bomb information to Soviets
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Crime
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Disaster
- 1998 Marine jet severs ski-lift cable in Italy
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General Interest
- 1924 Woodrow Wilson dies
- 1953 Cousteau publishes The Silent World
- 1959 The day the music died
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- 1994 Clinton ends Vietnam trade embargo
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Hollywood
- 1989 John Cassavetes dies
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Literary
- 1820 Keats falls deathly ill
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Music
- 1959 The Music dies in an Iowa cornfield
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Old West
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Presidential
- 1994 Clinton ends trade embargo of Vietnam
-
Sports
- 2002 New England Patriots win first Super Bowl
- 2008 New York Giants upset New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII
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Vietnam War
- 1955 Diem institutes limited agrarian reforms
- 1970 Senate Foreign Relations Committee opens hearings
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World War I
- 1917 U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Germany
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World War II
- 1944 U.S. troops capture the Marshall Islands
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