Bush's Supreme Challenge

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Ultimately, what Gonzales has going for him is that Bush has looked him in the eye for years and liked what he has seen. He also seems to like what his support for Gonzales seems to say about himself: that the aristocratic President is an egalitarian guy capable of rewarding up-by-the-bootstraps achievement. All this may be important enough to Bush that he's willing to take some political heat for his loyal pal, whose life story he cited in his second inaugural address as Governor of Texas. "I think of my friend Al Gonzales, recently sworn in as a supreme-court justice," Bush said back in 1999. "His parents reared eight children in a two-bedroom house in Houston. They sacrificed so that their children would have a chance to succeed. Al Gonzales has realized their dream." They are words one can imagine hearing again this summer in the Rose Garden if Bush decides to make another dream come true. --With reporting by Cathy Booth Thomas/Houston