The Future AG

Okay, so this is a bit of a 'breaking news' thing but it has some relevance and certainly fits with the general way in which this blog treats ol bushy. It looks as if Bush's nominee for Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, the former Federal Judge from New York, is likely to pass. He's got the votes on the Judiciary committee to get to a full Senate vote where he's likely to be accepted for AG. It moved out of committee because two Democrats- the only two Democrats, I might add- decided to vote in favour of him (even the Chair, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and the top Republican, Arlen Specter, had qualms about him). Those Democrats were Feinstein and Schumer of California and New York, respectively.

Schumer came out in favour of him early on- maybe as a fellow New Yorker?- but then had a crisis of conscience when it became apparent that Mukasey was dodging the torture issue by saying he couldn't really discuss whether waterboarding was illegal, only repugnant (Really? Just repugnant? What about electrodes on your nutsack? Just repugnant or are we crossing the line yet? Or do you need a classified briefing first?).

Now I don't care for Schumer and I admit I enjoyed his political difficulties here- support a guy who will likely go soft on the Administration and torture or look like a chump for supporting a guy way too early before the facts were in- but his explanation, like Feinstein's I think says a lot.

Both of them voted to let the nominee go to the floor for debate for the simple reason that they didn't expect to get anything better from Bush. Yep, that's right. Both are on the record as saying that, quite frankly, no one that Bush would nominate would really stand up to scrutiny or moral decency so we might as well just pass this guy. See, Bush is a bit like a child. He thinks the Congress is there to just confirm whomever he puts there. He also doesn't understand why they want to ask annoying questions that make him look bad. But he's also smart enough not to nominate someone who is really going to be a pain in the ass and not legitimate his desires to torture people.

Bush's logic on torture defies, well, logic. He says that the US does not break the law and torture is against the law so the US does not torture (he only says that 'our practices' are within the law, mind you). Yet what is at issue is whether what the CIA does constitutes torture and is, therefore, illegal. Bush is simply trying to redefine what torture means so that it doesn't run afoul of the law. So when he says he is acting in accordance with the law, in a really fucked up way, he is telling the truth! Schumer and Feinstein were right, sadly enough, we're just not going to get anything good from these guys and Mukasey is at least mildly independent.

I just think it's a sad, sad commentary on Bush more than anything. I know some of you might say 'well why can't the Dems stand up to Bush and just let the govt grind to a halt before letting his dumbass nominees and policies pass?' Well, the short answer is that Congress goes on break very soon and Bush can assign whomever he wants to any open post in a 'recess appointment' that is completely beyond Congressional oversight. So this really was the lesser of two evils.

Side Note- So the gender card came out in the recent Democratic Presidential debates. It seems the 1984 Vice Presidential Candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, thinks that the male candidates were jumping on poor ol Clinton because she's a woman. Her logic: no one would gang up on Obama because he's black but being sexist (her words) is still ok and that's why Clinton was the focus of intense scrutiny in the debates. Really? Is it all that simple Ms Ferraro? Critics have pointed out that the gender card is not being played by Clinton's opponents but by Clinton herself and her supporters. Face it. Clinton is the front-runner and both Obama and Edwards- the two that attacked her the most- want to BE the front-runner. Clinton's gender is irrelevant. But thanks for making feminists looks stupid, Geraldine. I think most of them recognise that gender had fuck all to do with it... See, even Democrats can be dumb.