Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

Last week’s revelation that former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft emerged as an unlikely defender of Americans’ civil liberties is putting a new light on the Missouri lawyer.

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, Ashcroft’s former Deputy Attorney James Comey detailed how a hospitalized and severely ill Ashcroft effectively told then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff Andrew Card to get lost when they tried getting Ashcroft to renew unconstitutional domestic surviellance.

But a little known detail emerged from interviews that NPR’s Terri Gross conducted on her “Fresh Air” show with Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage and Regent University Law School Dean Jeffrey Brauch: Ashcroft teaches part time at Regent University Law School — the alma mater of embattled former DOJ White House liaison and Senior Counsel Monica Goodling.

Both have ties to the law school founded by Christian conservative evangelist Pat Robertson.

Yet Ashcroft has emerged as an unlikely hero, taking a higher ground in his refusal to let Gonzales run rough-shod over civil liberties. Goodling is still being investigated by the DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine’s Office for possibly basing her Justice Department hiring practicies on job candidates having GOP ties on their resumes.

Goodling received a court-ordered grant of immunity to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in its ongoing investigation of the U.S. Attorney firings.