An Internal Struggle Followed by Compromise
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President Bush's decision to issue the order to Texas came after a vigorous internal debate shortly after the beginning of his second term, and it became a test of his determination to repair damaged relations with the international community. Bush had appointed his White House counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, as attorney general and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, as secretary of state, and the two quickly found themselves on opposite sides of the case.
The Justice Department under Gonzales expressed doubt about the president's authority to intervene in a state criminal matter and the wisdom of seeming to go against his own belief in federalism. But Rice argued the United States had an obligation under international law and saw it as an opportunity to allay fears raised in Bush's first term over the administration's unilateralism.
"We really had to address the concern that we don't take international law seriously," said one administration official, recalling Rice's argument on the condition of anonymity. "Here was an opportunity to do something."
A series of phone calls and meetings between Rice and Gonzales and their aides produced a compromise -- Bush would issue the order to Texas but withdraw the United States from the particular protocol of the convention at issue to keep such circumstances from happening again. "It was a tough decision for the president," the official said. "This was his home state."
-- Peter Baker
