Gonzales Stripped of His "Lawyer of the Year" Title

Posted by Richard Blair, The All Spin Zone at 5:17 AM on December 17, 2007.

When the guffaws died down in the old oak smoking rooms of lawyer's clubs across America, something interesting happened - the stogy, corporate, Skull and Bones network decided that maybe bestowing such an honor on Abu Al wasn't exactly in keeping with the spirit of the U.S. constitution. So, they rescinded the award -- by renaming it.

There was a lot of snickering and outrage in Left Blogistan the other day when it was announced that former U.S. Attorney General Alberto "Abu Al" Gonzales was tapped as lawyer of the year by the American Bar Association. As weird as news of that honor might have been, I figured, quid pro quo. That's what lawyers do, to an extent. When an AG leaves office, even amidst controversy, there's a certain degree of barrister back-scratching in play.

It didn't take long for the ABA to rescind Abu Al's award, though. Apparently, the bruhaha caused the ABA to reconsider (or reinterpret) the award. Again, that's what lawyers do when there's a stinkola in the ranks:

So that there can be no confusion, the term "Lawyers of the Year" has been changed in the headline and story to "Newsmakers of the Year." The story is otherwise unchanged from its original version.

This article, like all in the Journal, is the work of the magazine's editorial staff. As is the magazine's practice, it was not reviewed by the Journal's volunteer Board of Editors, the ABA's Board of Governors, or its officers, prior to publication. The Journal will continue to strive to provide high quality news to its readership...

The readership of the ABA Journal is nothing if not a discerning group of legal scholars. Make no mistake about it, changing the headline of the article (and the thrust of the "award") was driven by feedback from ABA members, not from left wing blogs who were stupefied by the tone deaf decision of the ABA Journal editors to bestow "Lawyer of the Year" on Abu Al.

I say "tone deaf" because there are not many lawyers in America, GOP or Democrat, who could make a straight-faced case for Alberto Gonzales as a top gun lawyer or defender of the Constitution. After all, the Constitution of the United States is the basis for much of the legal opinion in the U.S., and Gonzales views the Constitution as so much toliet tissue.

It's not hard to imagine that there was a tremendous amount of heat and animosity in the editorial room of ABA Journal as they picked Gonzales for their annual poster boy. I don't think for a moment that they could have anticipated the public relations blowback - and that's surprising. Lawyers are supposed to be able to think one step ahead. That's what they get paid for.

At least the ABA Journal had the good sense to take one step back, and essentially say, "Hey, we fucked up, big time. Can we have a do-over?"

Tagged as: gonzales, american bar association

Richard Blair is the blogmaster of All Spin Zone.