JE: [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales—no. Although I have to say, so far he’s doing a reasonable job from what I’ve seen. I know him—I got to know the Attorney General reasonably well because I was on the [Senate] Judiciary Committee and I interacted with him a fair amount about judges when he was in the White House. I always found him to be smart and trustworthy in my interaction with him. My problem with him is he was directly connected to the abuse issue and was very involved in the administration’s dealings with torture and abuse, and I think it sends the wrong signal to the rest of the world.

THC: And what about John Bolton?

JE: No. Bolton should not be the United Nations ambassador. He’s shown incredible disdain for the United Nations, and on top of that he’s also been one of the people who’s supposed to have been responsible for doing something about nuclear proliferation, which has gotten worse. So in one of the areas that he’s supposed to be primarily responsible, he’s not been effective.

THC: And [Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice?

JE: I would have voted against Condoleezza Rice. I will say the same thing I said about Gonzales: I think so far she’s actually done a pretty good job as Secretary of State. But her connection to the lead up to the Iraq War and the statements made by the administration and her continuing to stand by those statements in the face of overwhelming factual evidence was not right.

THC: And what do you think about the Patriot Act being up for renewal?

JE: I think it needs to be changed.

THC: In what regard?

JE: There were some things in the Patriot Act that were good. Some of the information training provisions, the updating of laws to account for today’s technology. Those are good things. But the provisions like going to libraries and bookstores and finding out what people are buying and checking out without adequate safeguards—that’s what needs to be changed. The sneak-and-peek searches are troublesome because of a lack of adequate due process. There are things that need to be changed. It shouldn’t just be renewed.

—Staff writer Javier C. Hernandez can be reached at jhernand@fas.harvard.edu.