Associated Press
Negative news coverage may have cost former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales his job, but it won him a dubious honor Wednesday from a magazine published by the American Bar Association: Lawyer of the Year.
Additionally, the ABA Journal named Gonzales’ successor, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, as its top lawyer for 2008 — mostly in anticipation of how often he’ll be in the media spotlight for trying to repair the beleaguered Justice Department.
The monthly magazine gave the awards to lawyers who made the most news, said editor and publisher Edward A. Adams.
“Think about Time magazine’s Person of the Year,” Adams said in an interview. “In years past they’ve named people like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin. So we’re not suggesting by these awards that these are the best lawyers in any sense of the word. We are saying they are the most newsworthy — and perhaps also the best.”
(Original Article)
Today, I learned that the ABA has seen fit to nominate Alberto Gonzales to Lawyer of the Year. It seems to suggest that the criterion was “top newsmakerâ€. I do not buy it! I could recite a litany of reasons why he should be sanctioned by the legal profession, but one particularly galling reason was his role in the wiretapping of American citizens without a court order; and as such he abetted a potential violation of the time honored right to the attorney-client privilege. For this he deserves ABA Man of the Year? How about Scoundrel of the Year? I am incensed over the ABA’s squandering of an opportunity to honor our members for contributing to the betterment of the world, not its deterioration! Look for my resignation from the ABA, effective immediately!
The ABA Journal is full of lawyers, which equates to crooks, morons and professional liers, but I agree, “Alberto Gonzales is the lawyer of the year, For Me To Poop On”, quote Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.