The AP version of yesterdays (1/26/05) Senate Judiciary Committee vote on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General can be found in this Yahoo! story,
Gonzales Nomination Moves to Senate Vote, and also at ABCNews.com.
The word "torture" is not used in the AP article even one time.
Not one time.
The AP story begins by reporting the partisan split that advanced Gonzales despite Democratic complaints that he is too close to President Bush
That is certainly a better frame for Republicans than reporting the comments that were made about Gonzales culpability in condoning torture or his deceit before a Senatorial Committee. Unfortunately, the story continues and never adequately reports the true flavor of how Democratic Senators spoke about Gonzales.
More in extended.
Have a look at what's at the top of the story.
Gonzales Nomination Moves to Senate Vote
Wed Jan 26, 6:36 PM ET Politics - U. S. Congress
By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - A Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) divided along partisan lines advanced Alberto Gonzales' nomination as attorney general to the full Senate Wednesday despite Democratic complaints that he is too close to President Bush (news - web sites) to be effective as the nation's top law enforcement official.
"It's hard to be a straight shooter when you're a blind loyalist," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.
The article describes Democrats as voting against a man with the wrong personality and insufficient independence to be Attorney General. Note how this story frames Democratic opposition as if the Democrats are presuming to decide for the President what kind of person he wants for his own staff. Since many rightly think that is the President's business the Democrats look bad through this frame.
The article does dance around the issue of torture. Look at the section below where it describes torture, without using the word, as "White House policies in the war on terror" and "treatment of foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib .. <and> ... Guantanamo"
As if the torture allegations only reach that deeply.
Democrats complained that Gonzales was evasive with his answers to their questions about White House policies in the war on terror. They have used his nomination and that of secretary of state nominee Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) to criticize the Iraq (news - web sites) war and the treatment of foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Democrats certainly complained about alot more than his evasiveness in answering questions about White House policies. They complained about Gonzales connections to torture. But the strongest of those statements you won't find in the AP article. Instead we are treated to the quotes of Democrats questioning his judgement, another personal characteristic that many believe is in the President's purview, instead of Senators.
Democrats laid much of the blame at Gonzales' feet. "Based on the glimpses of secret policy formulations and legal rationales that have come to light, I believe his judgments not to have been sound," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt.
"His judgment is defective," Biden added.
What you don't find are statements like these, from a story by Scripps Howard
"I do not believe he has been candid with the Judiciary Committee about his views on torture or its use," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in announcing her opposition to Gonzales.
AP could have chosen, bud did not, any of these quotes from Reuters:
Yet, Leahy charged, "Judge Gonzales has championed policies that are in fundamental conflict with decades of our laws, sound military practice, international law and human rights."
Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, complained that Gonzales was less than forthcoming to the committee.
"We have a torture problem. The FBI says so. The Red Cross says so. The Defense Intelligence Agency says so," Kennedy said.
"Additional allegations of abuse are being reported on a daily basis. Yet Mr. Gonzales can't remember any details of how it happened," Kennedy said
The AP version of yesterdays Senate Judiciary Committee vote managed to weed out all of the strongest statements made by Democratic Senators while casting Democrats as obstructionist and petty. In a committee where torture is the elephant in the room, the AP story managed to miss the elephant.
Most readers of the AP story on Yahoo, or at ABC, or in the thousands of other places where it appears will not dig deep enough to see the true character of the Democratic opposition to Gonzales. That opposition is something to be proud of for Americans who worry our country is now perceived as immoral and brutal by the rest of the world. But with stories like those put forth by AP the word will not get out about how controversial our nations actions have been nor how central a part in enabling torture was played by Alberto Gonzales
Democrats need to redouble their efforts to communicate to all Americans the true nature of Senatorial opposition to Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.