Republicans Blackmailing Obama (planning to “go nuclear” over Bush torture memos)

[sabra]

Source: washington independent

Senate Republicans are pressuring President Obama into not releasing the controversial torture memos we’ve all been waiting for (and which the administration again refused to release last week) by threatening to block confirmation of two key Obama Justice Department nominees, Scott Horton reports in The Daily Beast today.

The appointments of Dawn Johnsen, nominated to head the same Office of Legal Counsel that produced those memos (and who’s been strongly critical of the office’s work in the past), and of Harold Hongju Koh, the illustrious Dean of Yale Law School who has been tapped for State Department legal counsel, hang in the balance. Both have already been publicly attacked by conservatives as extreme leftists for, in Johnsen’s case, criticizing the torture memos and supporting the right to an abortion, and in Koh’s, for being a strong advocate of international law. (Dahlia Lithwick at Slate recently catalogued some of the more absurd attacks in her own defense of Koh.)

Horton wrote of the current political struggle:

“Senate Republicans are now privately threatening to derail the confirmation of key Obama administration nominees for top legal positions by linking the votes to suppressing critical torture memos from the Bush era. A reliable Justice Department source advises me that Senate Republicans are planning to “go nuclear” over the nominations of Dawn Johnsen as chief of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice and Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh as State Department legal counsel if the torture documents are made public. The source says these threats are the principal reason for the Obama administration’s abrupt pullback last week from a commitment to release some of the documents. A Republican Senate source confirms the strategy. It now appears that Republicans are seeking an Obama commitment to safeguard the Bush administration’s darkest secrets in exchange for letting these nominations go forward.”



Read more: http://washingtonindependent.com/37403/republicans-blackmailing-obama

[Hugabear]

1. Let them.

If they really want to be known as the party that defends Bush's use of torture, then let them paint that picture of themselves. It won't be a pretty picture.

[Champion Jack]

2. What?!?!?!?

Screw them

[sharp_stick]

3. Recess Appointments

The pukes don't hold the power in either house and can't stop them from going into recess. I would like to see the Administration to simply tell them to go fuck themselves, produce the memos and the threats from the irrelevant party in minority status.

Then make a shitload of ads that constantly link the irrelevant party in minority status to the torture memos and their refusal to allow nominations to go through in 2010 and we've got our supermajority.

[Stuckinthebush]

9. Bingo!

My thoughts exactly.

Screw em. Play hard ball.

[Merlot]

20. Agreed.

"I would like to see the Administration to simply tell them to go fuck themselves, produce the memos and the threats from the irrelevant party in minority status."

[crikkett]

28. That's right. Do they go into recess during the Easter Holiday?

[HereSince1628]

4. The earlier discussion on this topis is at...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5400418&mesg_id=5400526

[HereSince1628]

5. oh oh, double dribble...

[pleah]

6. Oh, good grief.

:eyes:

[Old and In the Way]

7. Important Story.

Lets get their nomination started...then let the Republicans explain why they need to derail these nominations. I suspect that the American people really don't mind if the Bush administration's crimes get exposed. If they stonewall, then put them in on recess appointment. Or appoint them as permanent temporary hires.

[mvd]

8. Oh, geez

Come on, Obama - show some strength. I was worried when Emanuel and some of the cabinet members were appointed that this would be Clinton capitulation all over again. I'm still giving him the benefit of the doubt, but recently I've become more discouraged.

Perhaps the President can't even pull strings anymore in Washington.

[madrchsod]

10. the american people do`t give a shit what the thugs have to say.

the american people want to know when they can go back to work,if they can afford health-care, if they can afford the rent or house payments,and if they are going to be laid-off or hours cut.

the majority of the people who voted wanted a new direction for this country,wanted the government to work for them,and protect their life and liberty. so far obama has the backing of the majority of americans. the thugs can talk all they want but no one is listening.

[mbperrin]

11. PLEASE let them use the nukular option!

Really want to speed up Dem super-majorities in the next cycle? Here's the way!

Go for it, you dumb evil fucks!

[santamargarita]

12. It's time to Nuke Senate Republicans - all of them!

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[DinahMoeHum]

13. Let those fuckers squeal like stuck pigs, it's great entertainment.

:evilgrin:

[grahamhgreen]

14. Obama needs to attack the Repubs with every legal memoranda at his disposal - especially on torture

throw them into CYA mode, they will be so busy trying to stay out of jail, we can actually accomplish something.

[XXXMADAM]

15. New Intelligence IG - Ms. Roslyn Mazer

Blackmail, Sextortion, Pimping and hanging hookers is all they know how to do, that is their forte, modus operandi and is how they ran the govmnt, the war, the world, the tortures, the bailouts (Spitzer sextortion), the Justice Dept., etc.. during BushCo tenure.
http://www.defraudingamerica.com/robin_head.html
xxx

The new military IG sounds Hopeful:

Roslyn Mazer to be ODNI Inspector General

Article excerpts:

...from 1996 to 2000 Ms. Mazer was the first chair of the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP), which is among the most successful classification reform initiatives of the last half century. At a time when agency Inspectors General may be asked to assume greater oversight over classification policy, she brings an exceptional depth of knowledge and experience to the subject.

...Under Ms. Mazer’s leadership from 1996 to 2000, the ISCAP declassified information in an astounding 80% of the documents that were presented for its review.

...In fact, Ms. Mazer’s ISCAP was so successful in overturning spurious classification claims that the Central Intelligence Agency begged for relief from ISCAP jurisdiction.

...Ms. Mazer will succeed Edward Maguire, the outgoing ODNI Inspector General who presented his own critique of the ODNI in testimony before a hearing (pdf) of Rep. Anna Eshoo’s House Intelligence subcommittee last week (“IG Report Blasts the Director of National Intelligence,” Secrecy News, April 2, 2009).

Full article: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/04/mazer_odni_ig.h...

[Hawkeye-X]

16. They can go nuclear all they want.

They just don't have the keys to nuke 'em.

We do.. and it's time to turn the guns on them and nuke 'em.

I'm still advocating the nuclear option in the state of emergency to help remove Rethugs from power and position they should not be in.

[gratuitous]

17. This ruse shouldn't work

Really? The Republicans want to shut down the government to protect torturers? That must be because Newt Gingrich's temper tantrum in 1996 worked so well. I don't think the public is going to be impressed by the Republican coddling of perpetrators of crimes against humanity. And the perpetrators don't even have the bad excuse of the absurd Ticking Time Bomb Scenario.

Can we go back to being the United States of America, and end this impersonation of the Soviet Union under Stalin?

[annabanana]

18. This doesn't make them look AT ALL guilty, does it?

Naw. . They just don't want Americans to "trouble their beautiful minds". . .

[williesgirl]

19. Obama needs to stand up to these evil fuckers NOW. Use recess appointments if necessary but publish

those memos and shut them up forever. rec'd

[JerseygirlCT]

21. Let 'em try

Then let's:

Get Franken seated
Go to work on Spector, Collins and Snowe.

Once they're shown they cannot bully the administration, it's game over for the GOP.

[LynnTheDem]

22. Whatcha HIDING, republics??? Whatcha SCARED OF, republics???

Republicans; scared shitless that the truth will come out.

Thing is, we know, the world knows; America TORTURED people; MURDERED people. As official policy.

[Arkana]

23. He doesn't do cowering.

I thought they'd have learned that by now. I can't wait till he says "Fuck 'em. Call their bluff and release the damn papers--they want to lose more seats in 2010, this is how you do it."

[Optical.Catalyst]

24. The Republicans don't have the votes to do jack

Let's publish the torture memos and let the Republican scream. Then when the information in the memos is made public, they will have even less votes in 2010 and cease to be a viable political party after the 2012 elections.

Let the Pukes go nuclear. They don't run Washington today, we do. The Republicans can sit in the corner and watch the adults fix the mess caused by eight years of a little chimp running the Government.

[and-justice-for-all]

25. good luck with that..nt

[TankLV]

26. RELEASE THE FUKING CRIMINAL REPUKE MEMOS ALREADY!!!

RELEASE THEM NOW SO EVERYONE CAN SEE WHAT THESE WAR CRIMINALS DID!!!

I with the Democrats had even one one thousandth the balls that these repuke do...

[Vidar]

27. Let 'em Time to back them into their chosen corner.

[harun]

29. B*sh basically destroyed the Republican Party, why are they still loyal to him?

[Supersedeas]

30. Senators like Richard Burrrr, in the pockets of the Chamber of Commerce, must be tickled

[ProgressIn2008]

31. *If* this is true, Obama would be purest scum for covering up torture for a couple of noms.

I'm thinking it can't be true. Just too over the top. Who would share the guilt in Bush torture for a couple of nominations' sake?

Complicity = consent. Bottom line.