The first Cabinet member to depart President Bush’s administration since his re-election is probably the most contentious. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s decision to step down is welcome news on two counts:

First, Ashcroft has been an instrumental force behind the excesses of the Patriot Act as well as an emphasis on secrecy in government. It’s a force we can do without.

Second, the vacancy at Justice gives the president an opportunity to demonstrate that he’s serious about uniting the country and the government. Nominating a more moderate replacement for Ashcroft would be a signal that Bush wants a less divisive climate during his second term.

Unfortunately, the president made a hasty choice, naming his longtime friend, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, the author of a Jan. 25, 2002, memo making a case for ignoring the Geneva Conventions with respect to torturing Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners. New kind of war, new set of rules, Gonzales reasoned.

“In my judgment,” he wrote, “this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”

The willingness to abandon longstanding American principles of honor have done serious damage to the nation’s image. That concern is certain to be raised during Senate confirmation proceedings. Gonzales also needs to be quizzed about whether he would continue Ashcroft’s policy of instructing federal agencies to treat government information as secret unless there’s a compelling reason to make it public. That stand was an alarming reversal of previous policies that favored openness unless there was a compelling case for secrecy.

Nor can Gonzales expect smooth sailing once Senate Democrats are done with him. Some Republicans are concerned about the threat posed to personal liberties by Ashcroft’s Patriot Act. Others have misgivings about Bush’s and Gonzales’ relaxed views about immigration controls.

These tensions suggest that if Gonzales is confirmed as attorney general he would take office under the gaze of many skeptics. That’s not uniting.

Naturally, Bush is going to appoint Cabinet officers who share his ideology, but he had better choices who still fit that mold. Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, for example, has a reputation as someone who can work constructively with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. He’s also said to have an authentic respect for civil liberties. And there was former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Such choices would have set a more encouraging tone for the way Bush will reconstitute his Cabinet.

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