If he's confirmed as attorney general, Alberto Gonzales will be able to know what each one of us buys in a bookstore or reads in a library, but we're not allowed to know his middle name?

Alberto R. Gonzales - the White House declined to release his middle name, saying that Mr. Gonzales prefers the initial - was born on Aug. 4, 1955.

Yeah, it's trivial, but can you imagine the Drudge headlines and the snickering on Hardball if a Clinton appointee had tried to withhold such information? (MIDDLE NAME-GATE!) It would have been alluded to for years as an indicator of "character." (Not comfortable in his own skin! What else is he hiding? Is he ashamed of who he is?)

So what is Gonzales hiding? If George W. Bush, in the process of seeking the most powerful elective office on the planet, can make a campaign issue out of the proper way to order a cheesesteak, why can't Gonzales's confirmation hinge on whether this vital piece of information is revealed?

(Link via Sadly, No!)