It was beginning to look like the Democrats in the Senate Judiciary Committee were successfully going to stand up for the rule of law, and not send the nomination of Mukasey as Attorney General to the Senate for a vote….because he refuses to answer the question of whether waterboarding (a practice which we prosecuted as a war crime after WWII, and which was also done by the Khmer Rouge) was torture.
It was obvious that Mukasey was doing this to avoid a Catch-22 which would have eventually required War Crimes proceedings against the administration that authorized this abhorrent practice. Mukasey also claimed that he believed that there were conditions under which the President is above the Law.
The Democrats looked like they might actually have a spine. They might actually throw this one back in Bush’s face. Bush, of course, played the 9/11 card — saying that they were threatening the country by failing to confirm his AG nomination, who is “crucial in the War on Terror.”
Today, Bush’s fearmongering worked.
Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York have announced that they’ll support Mukasey’s nomination. It’ll go to the Senate, and the Republicans will ensure that it passes.
For Chrissakes, Democrats. You can’t even stand against TORTURE?
Fuck this country. I’m out of here in a year and a half.
I can’t tell you how pissed I was to hear about this, especially after Leahy’s great comments.
What the fuck is wrong with these people? They know this is not why they were elected.
What I don’t understand is that they’re Senators from two of the biggest, Bluest Blue States out there, filled will populations that would CHEER them on if they voted no.
WHAT THE FUCK.
Yep, I noticed that myself.
I have to assume there’s some serious political backscratching–if not downright corruption–on this one. No other scenario makes sense to me.
Godfrakking damn:(
I guess I’m out of here too.
God DAMN it.
Thank you for this on a Friday night. No, seriously. I know it sounds like a joke, but thank you. I need to know these things.
I have a suspicion
I suspect that this is more DLC strategy bullshit. After all, it appears that the Beltway insiders are all very quiet on a number of fronts whereas the people who we already identify as being on OUR side (Like Russ Feingold) aren’t really running for anything.
I Suspect that the strategy is stay out of the way, let the neocons step on their dicks, let them put forth a president out of that vast wasteland of candidate they have. Let it get worse. WAY WORSE than it already is.
It’s cynical. It’s scummy. It’s going to mean that this country is going to suffer even more. And the worst thing about it is that it will probably work, assuming that the Neocons don’t actually manage to provoke an unwinnable war in Iran, while our economoy goes into a depression.
I think Washington DC has an unpleasant effect on people. It fucks up their sense of perspective.
After everything we’ve been given to see over the last several years – how can anyone be surprised by this? The politicos don’t have anyone’s interests at heart but their own, be they political interests or financial.