Inside Politics

Hola, America

While trouble may be brewing for U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a statement to consider comes from the District-based Latino Coalition, which is taking CNN host Jack Cafferty to task for calling Mr. Gonzales “the president’s water boy” during a telecast of “The Situation Room” on March 12.

“This kind of rhetoric from a journalist is simply unacceptable and racist,” said the nonprofit’s president, Robert G. Deposada. “We cannot be hypocritical when it comes to racist statements in our national media. If the attorney general was an African American, and Mr. Cafferty would have called him a water boy, the entire media establishment and civil rights organizations from across the country would be calling for Mr. Cafferty’s firing.”

Mr. Deposada continued, “Attorney General Gonzales is a highly qualified and very accomplished professional. For anyone to call this highly respected Latino a water boy is simply outrageous and shows enormous amounts of prejudice.”

The group, which first aired its concerns April 20, suggests Mr. Cafferty be fired.

Hola, Alberto

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales is safe for now, according to the Washington Prowler. Previously, the White House was considering Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris Cox to replace him.

“But after some initial internal discussion, according to White House insiders, plans to dump Gonzales were dropped,” the Prowler said yesterday.

“Even if we’d nominated someone like Cornyn, it wasn’t clear that we had the strategy or the chits to call in to get him confirmed in a timely manner,” a White House source said. “And Cox has been a disappointment at the SEC. He’s shown too much of a willingness to work with the Democratic members of the commission.”

The Prowler concluded, “As it stands, look for a cleaning of the house in lower ranks of the Justice Department’s political appointees, with Gonzales staying on for a period.”

That was quick

Journalists snipe at one another over rivals’ coverage, discussions continue on gun control in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre just over two weeks ago, but opportunity, apparently, has knocked. A book about the shootings is under way — already.

Publisher’s Weekly reported yesterday that Plume Books has bought world rights to “April 16: Heartbreak in Blacksburg,” now being penned by journalism professor Roland Lazenby. Three of his students will help him, with “a portion of the proceeds” to be given to the victims’ fund at Virginia Tech, and to “support journalism education” at the university.

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