Fool me once
It looks an awful lot as if the lesson people like Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein have taken away from the last six years is something like "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ... you. Fool me any number of times and I'll retroactively blame other people when the fact that I haven't learned my lesson eventually screws me over."
To be fair, I think it's possible that Schumer's right--that a recess appointed AG might have substantively worse views about justice than Mukasey does. But if the last two weeks have taught us anything, it's that, whatever Mukasey's views, he's already decided to say whatever it is George Bush wants him to say, and that in the final analysis, he may be no better than David Addington or whomever else we'd get during winter break. Then again, John Ashcroft turned out to be extremely preferable to Alberto Gonzales, so perhaps these intellectual differences do matter.
Still, if your interest is that the United States should sooner than later disavow water boarding and other forms of torture, then it seems to me that the best way forward would have been for Schumer and Feinstein to vote against Mukasey and co-sponsor a resolution defining water boarding as torture--and continuing to insist as much publicly, even if the resolution failed.
Comments
I can't believe you're the only blogger concern about this issue and none of the other bloggers even think it's mentionable.
Still, if your interest is that the United States should sooner than later disavow water boarding and other forms of torture, then it seems to me that the best way forward would have been for Schumer and Feinstein to vote against Mukasey and co-sponsor a resolution defining water boarding as torture--and continuing to insist as much publicly, even if the resolution failed.
If congress is to have any power, the nomination process has to be very relevant, as substantial as is Bush's veto that Bush is NEVER afraid to use.
And this point is right too that whatever Mukasey's views, he's already decided to say whatever it is George Bush wants him to say, and it's clear to me too that Mukasey will do whatever it is that Bush tells him to do if Mukasey wouldn't even say waterboarding is torture, thus wiretapping also will not be illegal.
I'm sure that Gonzales didn't recommend torture to Bush, and that we all know Bush just wanted Gonzales to declare it a legal act right along with wiretapping, hence Ashcroft's night in the hospital room visit by Bushie loyalist.
I'm sure we all know that this co-sponsor resolution defining water boarding as torture is not going to go anywhere.
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