Mukasey Gets the Nod From Senate Judiciary

By Mimikatz

The nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General has just been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 11-8.  Senators Feinstein and Schumer were the only Dems voting aye.

With his confirmation now assured, we will get to see whether having Mukasey instead of an acting loyal Bushie in charge really makes any difference.  Somehow I doubt it, as long as David Addinton is the legal consigliere for the Bush/Cheney regime.

DiFi's website seems to be down, indicating perhaps some incoming criticism of her.  I had intended to suggest she redeem her recent transgressions by voting against the Unhealthy Diet Promotion Act, aka the current Farm Bill.  It subsidizes the large producers of corn for high-fructose corn syrup and corn-fed beef, while giving only a buy-off to producers of the fruits and vegetables we are all supposed to be eating to improve our health and contributing to the coninued impoverishment of third-world farmers.  One of the largest recipients of federal largesse is a cotton-growing enterprise in California's Central Valley.  At last report neither DiFi nor Barbara Boxer had declared on the bill or it's alternative, the Fresh Act.  IN an ironic twist, Bush threatens a veto because the bloated bill is fiscally irresponsible and would violate various WTO agreements.  Sure to be another triumph of party over principle and money over good policy.

Comments

[b]

11 to 8 couldve been 9 to 10. way to go, majority party.

[LabDancer]

I give the link to Schumer’s NY Op-Ed with his rationale for voting to confirm out of protocol [The firewall may have gone up by now.]:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/opinion/06schumer.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

As far as I can tell DiFi has not even TRIED to rationalize HER support. Maybe she thinks Chuck & not her is taking on most of the water on this story – or maybe her constituents still have so much smoke in their eyes they envy those subjected to the “technique”.

Sen Chucky Cheeseball’s rationale as stated is all Swiss – as Chair Leahy showed with deft & dismissive brevity [“Unsaid” is the Undead Boy King George wd “veto” any such bill.

But I'm comforated by the fact that if he had not come out with this Swiss Cheese Op-Ed I might have credited Schumer with a different & IMO far more efficacious rational:

Mukasey at the DOJ helm during the 2008 election cycle is greatly preferable to the WH BAddies subcontracting DOJ election prosecutions to the RNC

- except of course by the 25 to 40% of nativists whose neural behaviors show they’ve been bitten by winger pit bulls - & of course by their directors & handlers in the RNC seeking to benefit from their dietary onanism.

I accept the Cheese was at his smelly most honest: that he really DID intend to vote for Kindly Old Judge Hardy despite the judge’s Happy Idiot stance on waterboarding

[which I see on par with treating the NRA talking point “guns don’t kill people” as an issue deserving serious academic consideration]

so ultimately the Cheese isn’t just freche - it's guileless.

I realize as Democrats we are not members of any organized political party - but can we at least set up an early warning litmus test to try to weed out as many cheese eaters & blue dogs as possible early on to maintain the resources for serious liberals & progressives?

[Mimikatz]

DiFi said he was "not Alberto Gonzales." She may have also said he the best we would get from the Bush regime. She did issue a statement.

To the extent Mukasey has any clout, it may be better to have him in than one of the loyal Bushies as far as the election goes, although as Marcy reported, he refused to say he would change in the election back to precluding bring charges just before an election. Still, with Rove gone and Bush not on the ballot, the chicanery may be less centralized this time.

[freepatriot]

nice try Mimi:

I had intended to suggest she redeem her recent transgressions by voting against the Unhealthy Diet Promotion Act, aka the current Farm Bill.

that would work, cept this transgression is unredeemable

how long before I need to start reminding my neighbors about this betrayal ??? (counting the days)

ever heard the lesson of being a good shepherd ???

guard your flock faithfully for 40 years, and nobody will notice your dedication and accomplishment

but get caught fucking one sheep and they'll never forget it

my senator got caught fucking a sheep here

[phred]

Mary -- I'm pretty sure you are the one who has commented over at TPM and FDL that Congress should pass a resolution that OLC opinions do not have the force of law. Could such a resolution be made retroactive? My fear is just as a new law banning waterboarding might be used to rationalize earlier violations of the law, such a resolution would only be applicable to future OLC opinions and hence may implicitly suggest earlier assumptions that OLC opinions did have the force of law were reasonable.

[phred]

freepatriot -- LOL, thanks for that on such a depressing day...

[P J Evans]

TPM is saying that Harry the weak Reid is waffling about Mukasey now.

That's nice, Harry, but are you actually going to do anything to stop it when it gets to the floor?

[Mimikatz]

Not likely. The next step could be outlawing waterboarding as torture, which even Mukasey concedes is unsonstitutional, if the Dems have the guts to do so. See here.

[Mad Dogs]

Mimikatz said: "The next step could be outlawing waterboarding as torture, which even Mukasey concedes is unsonstitutional, if the Dems have the guts to do so."

And then the question is whether Junya signs it or not.

I'm pretty sure Deadeye could forge Junya's crayon scrawl on a Veto.

[P J Evans]

And then there's Georgie's signing statement, wherein he tries to explain why he's going to ignore the law he just signed.

[Mossypete]

Folks:
Regarding DiFi it's best to think of her as a Eastern style Liberal Republican in the Lincoln Chafee/Lowell Weicker mold or for old time New Yorkers a Rockefeller Republican.
Strong/deferential on defense/intelligence, Middle of the road on business, and ever so slightly to (what passes for)the left of center on social issues.

[phred]

And then after ignoring whatever the new law banning whatever might say, they will trot it out to say "see, prior to this law, everything we did was A-OK". Fabulous.

[Mary]

phred - I don't think they'd really do such a thing, but I was talking about a statute and not just a resolution. A preamble (as they did with the MCA - vicously) setting forth that "whereas" OLC opinions do not have the force of law and whereas the office of the Atty General (as opposed to WH counsel) is the people's lawyer and whereas no positions of the people's lawyer shall be secretly given to limited persons for their individual use and reliance, etc. ... then stating evidentiary/reliance standards. I haven't thought it through bc they won't do it, but something like OLC opinions that were never made public can not be proffered as an element of defense by anyone charged with a felony and opinions that were made public can only be proferred for justification from the time they were made public or something like that.

It's not so much that they make it retroactive as that they set it forth in the "this is how it is and how it has always been and let's clarify that in writing" approach - all of which may or may not fly if challenged.

I do think that it is difficult to say that the AG is allowed to give secret opinions for the use and benefit of nongovernment persons at least (the telecoms) and that with respect to govt persons. If it really had any chance in heck it would need lots more thought than my off the cuff mutterings, and may or may not work.

Offering a resolution that the Senate abhors torture and it is illegal and that the Senate believes a junior member of the Executive Branch may not rely upon the defense that they were authorized or directed to commit torture by a more senior member of the Executive Branch, even the President - - something like that might get purified and offered, but it would never be passed. Still, it would separate the imperialist torturers from the Americans.

[larue]

Mimi, thanks for the updates on the AG vote, and thanks for the info about the farm bill and the fresh act.

I have POUNDED Sci/Fi, Boxer and Pelosi repeatedly with emails in the past month for their HORRENDOUS representation of the voters who PUT THEM THERE!!

Perhaps to no avail, but if they even HEAR from their staffs we the people are grumbling, then GOOD!!! *G*

[freepatriot]

what
s the GOP gonna do when that ole gay bashing-fearmongering shit doesn't work anymore ???

four days back, Kentucky's scandal-plagued Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher was behind his Democratic opponent by a 20 point margin.

so the GOP fired up the robo calls with the gay bashing, and the fear mongering and all the horrible tales about San Francisco Democrats

and the results ???

fletcher is losing by 20 points

surprise surprise

shoulda started that gay bashing earlier huh ???

or does the whole fear mongering act fail if you begin too soon ???

looks like the fear mongering had no effect at all

the GOP has been plumbing the depths of disgusting behavior, and they still haven't hit bottom

how low can george and kkkarl lead the GOP, and what do they do when they find themselves alone at the bottom of the sewer

like I really care

[Mary]

I did my bit by voting for Beshears and Conway and Luallen.

Buh Bye Ernie.

Blackwater after Nisour is going to be looking hard at today's ruling in a suit against CACI

(http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/11/us_judge_contractor_can_face_i.php)

Judge Robertson has had a suit forever against Titan and CACI, by Iraqis who were interrogated by the contractors. The Titan contractors were interpreters and worked under the direct supervision of the military, so he's kicked that case out, but the CACI interrogators did interrogation on their own and took some direction from the military and some for CACI and some they made up themselves under CACI's guidelines.

So today Robertson says the CACI suit can go forward and we'll let the jury sort out which parts were actions under military supervision and command, and which were taken by them independently.

Start the state secrets countdown clock.

[phred]

Thanks Mary. I don't think Congress will do anything to clarify OLC opinions either. That would be a major tactical shift from their current game plan of abject acquiescence. Followed of course by sternly worded speeches of disapproval. Sigh.

[phred]

Mary, on the subject of the Titan and CACI cases, do you happen to know how it came to be that these two contractor companies had different degrees of supervision? I'm puzzled by why they were treated differently by the military.

[Dismayed]

DiFi should be recalled for her hair alone. Just saw her on the lie box and that hair of hers is reeedeeeculous!

The vikings wish they'd had a helmet like that.

She's just a spoiled 'ol patrician toad, time to send her home so she can spend more time abusing her house keeper.

[JohnLopresti]

I would like mimikatz to write a post about the ag issue; I actually once wrote an unpublished book the local state university and ag department used to write a crop management manual for one of the produce commodities in CA's fertile valleys. Maybe some people reading in other parts of the US know of the CA congress people's work to garner a cottonlike subsidy for some CA "specialty" crops; but there is a lot of controversy in the infrastructure of CA ag, although it is mostly perishables and nuts or process foods; we even raised cattle a while on our place, so I have seen some of that literature, as well. I think the grow local concept is going to advance broadly quickly, especially if we have a Democratic party president; but controlling what is grown, and where the water comes from, and where the water goes after the fields are controversial matters. It is possible that nominating a judge from SDNY is likely addressing unrelated issues here, though the urban forest in parts of NYC is artful. Even Christo Javacheff thought so. But before our incommunicado writer left, she ranged over a span of Mukasey's positions, all of those brief essays telling and perceptive. The issue with Mukasey is more than all Republicans supporting some return to ligitimizing brutality in jails and brigs and prisons; it is even more pernicious than generations glancing at violence as entertainment in cinema and television or MSM. I can almost hear the spirit of Libby saying, hey, rodeos are wholesome, and raw spirited, and good exercise. But there are numerous problems Conyers and company are pursuing that range way beyond mere tortcha, but it is symptomatic. There is an anthropologic side and a sociologic side of these processes, as well; but, for some other discussion.

[BAJ]

Off topic...but I am so very proud of Dennis Kucinich for doing his best to uphold the Constitution and impeach Cheney that I've donated to him and will vote for him for president. The other Dem candidates can just forget it.

[LabDancer]

BAJ - I'm with you on DK - tho I wish he'd learned the lawyer trick of getting the pronunciation of names straight in advance. In case the news hasn't reached Cleveland: El Baradei is a Nobel Peace Prize winner & a hell of smart fella - as he demonstrated on Charlie Rose recently. I do wish someone wd tell The Great Pumphead to take a FF at a donut the next time he castigates the smart set of nuke scientists who contribute to the conclusions of the IAEA because at least THEY get intelligence estimates correct.

What a sec.... maybe this is NOT AT ALL off topic! Depending on what the Dems are up to then - a head fake to allow Mukasey to 'squeak' in as AG would fit HJC Chair Conley's plan to issue subpoenas on Meiers & Bolten [& Rove FWTIW] - & that wd dove-tail nicely with Conley taking up the referral of DK's solid missionary work in the chamber - which wd imply a degree of deliberate SUBTLETY in the recent machinations of Schumer & DiFi - & maybe even Leahy & ... ACH!

WTF am I THINKING? This is the DEMS we're talking about! Get a grip! Ah well ... at least it felt good to imagine it was 1974.

[Kathleen]

Schumer recommended Mukasey. Who got rid of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty (what was his role in the espionage investigation and trial)

Marcy just how could Mukasey's appointment effect the upcoming Aipac espionage trial? Could he dismiss, undermine?

[Kathleen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYbgouqlMw

[Dennis Williamson]

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False Union With Rome
http://www.bustin.com/