Al's New Friends

By Perry Bacon Jr., KAREN TUMULTY

The outcry from social conservatives over the possible nomination of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to fill the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor is having an unintended consequence. It is winning him supporters. Some of them are not surprising. "Al Gonzales is a great friend of mine," President Bush said last week in response to the conservative assault over Gonzales' ambiguous views on abortion. "When a friend gets attacked, I don't like it." But Democrats--who blasted the former White House counsel during his Senate confirmation hearings for calling the Geneva convention "quaint," among other things--have also had unexpectedly kind words. "Alberto Gonzales is qualified," declared Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. "He's Attorney General of the United States and a former Texas judge."

Reid's remarks prompted a rash of phone calls to his office from liberals, exposing a fissure in the party over Gonzales. "For Reid to say that he is acceptable because we confirmed him as Attorney General is wrongheaded," says Robert Borosage of the Campaign for America's Future. Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org insists, "Gonzales should not be a Supreme Court Justice." Still, some party vets contend that Democrats will ultimately back Gonzales, seeing him as a more moderate choice than others Bush could name. "When push comes to shove," says Democratic strategist Harold Ickes, "I think Democrats will find him acceptable."

But G.O.P. opponents may have another gambit up their sleeve. To gain a surer vote on abortion and other hot-button conservative issues, they are proposing that Bush appoint John Cornyn, a conservative Texas Senator and former judge, to the court instead of Gonzales--and fill Cornyn's Senate seat with Representative Henry Bonilla, a Mexican American, in an effort to appeal to Latinos who back Gonzales. The battle will only grow more complicated if Chief Justice William Rehnquist retires, as he reportedly is planning to do, and opens up yet another court vacancy.