Dirty Words

In case you missed the mostly hyper-boring Senate Judiciary Hearings last Thursday, the most important thing you may have missed was that His Royal Majesty Alberto Gonzales is under the impression that an explicit Constitutional right is not really a right these days. Let's take the clocks back to the year 1214, so as to better understand his rationale:

GONZALES: [T]here is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution. There is a prohibition against taking it away. But it's never been the case, and I'm not a Supreme...

SPECTER: Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. The Constitution says you can't take it away, except in the case of rebellion or invasion. Doesn't that mean you have the right of habeas corpus, unless there is an invasion or rebellion?

GONZALES: I meant by that comment, the Constitution doesn't say, "Every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right to habeas." It doesn't say that. It simply says the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended except by...

SPECTER: You may be treading on your interdiction and violating common sense, Mr. Attorney General.

GONZALES: Um...

Is that how we should expect an Attorney General to interpret the law? Even the American Spectator and Rolling Stone can agree that it is not.