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"32 years ago this past election I cast my first vote in a national election in Massachusetts for George McGovern. I did this with pride, even when Massachusetts turned out to be the only state my candidate carried. We put up with the snide comments but in the meantime a "second rate burglary" began the unravelling of his opponent's administration and culminated in the resignation of Richard Nixon. I watched the hearings and saw congressional Democrats of great courage, integrity, and dignity fulfill their duty to protect and preserve the constitution. I had a strong sense that something good had come of a national ordeal, that a shadow had lifted from our country.
"What a pale shadow that was, compared to the one that covers us today. I never thought that the stakes could ever be higher than they were that spring and summer, but they are. We are teetering on the brink of a profound and perhaps irrevocable change in the nature of our democracy and our place in the international community. It is an extraordinary time calling for extraordinary measures by those who would preserve this unique experiment.
"That is why I am saddened, sickened, disgusted, demoralized by the pat-a-cake confirmation hearing of Alberto Gonzales. Without dragging you back over ground you know better than I do, this man is the most unqualified person, on many levels, to be the chief of law enforcement in this country. I almost wish Ashcroft were still available. The very integrity of the each member of your committee as well as the Democratic party is at stake here: will your personal and party's legacy be that you voted to confirm this moral and ethical horror to oversee the justice system of our nation, knowing beforehand of his perverted view and disrespect of our democracy, the laws of our nation and our treaty-based obligations to the world community? Any Democrat who votes to confirm this unworthy nominee is thereby complicit in whatever he may do as Attorney General. Your moral authority to oppose him will be compromised by your vote for him, just as the moral authority of the Democrats to criticize the Iraq war has been diluted by their acquiescence to it back in 2002.
"Please consider my words and vote against the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General."
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