That’s the title of my new Confirmation Tales post, the first of two that deal with my work as principal deputy in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel during most of President George W. Bush’s first term. In the post, I discuss my unenviable assignment to review White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’s record during his two years as a Texas supreme court justice.
Thoughts of those years inevitably bring back memories of 9/11. If you’ll indulge the personal reflection, here are excerpts from my post that bookend my discussion of judicial-confirmation matters:
On vacation with my young family in Virginia Beach a couple of decades ago, I was hacking my way around a golf course early one morning when two other golfers approached me. One of them asked, “Are you in the military?” What an odd question, I thought. “No. Why do you ask?,” I replied. “Two planes just flew into the World Trade Center,” he informed me….
My prior commitment to the family vacation in Virginia Beach meant that I missed the terror and turmoil in Washington, D.C. on September 11. I instead spent that day watching the horror on television in my condo bedroom. My wife and I tried to shield our four-year-old son from what we euphemistically called the “building fires.” Navy F-18s buzzed incessantly over the beach as I tried to figure out when I could drive back to D.C. and dive into the urgent legal questions that the 9/11 attack presented….
Seventeen summers after 9/11, the same son we tried to shield from the “building fires” flew in an F-18 over Virginia Beach as part of his Navy ROTC training. He is now a naval aviator.
Lots of interesting things coming up. I invite you to sign up for Confirmation Tales.