Mukasey Passes Judiciary Committee

[babylonsister]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/058023.php

Mukasey Passes Judiciary Committee
11.06.07 -- 10:27AM
By David Kurtz

The attorney general nominee goes to the full Senate, as predicted, with an 11-8 committee vote.
Schumer and Feinstein were the only senators to break party ranks.

[Solly Mack]

1. Surprise!

snort

[blm]

13. No surprise - Schumer has long carried water for powerful people who

have been maneuvering within the Democratic party.

Kinda like the way the Republican powermongers who have often used Arlen Specter the same way - they 'create' a centrist 'maverick' for themselves who just happens to protect the agenda they need when they need it.

[Solly Mack]

14. and where have you been?!?

Yeah..no surprise :(

[truebrit71]

2. Do you have contact info for the hopefully soon to be EX senators Feinstein and Schumer?

....I have a few choice words I'd like to express to them today...

[cali]

7. Unfortunately, neither is up for election for years. n/t

[truebrit71]

9. Don't care...they are going to get a piece of my mind regardless...

....this is simply unacceptable...

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. Schumer's term does not expire until 2011 and Feinstein's does not until 2013

Unless the Next President appoints them to the cabinet, it is unlikely that either of them will be ex Senators any time soon.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Can we waterboard Schumer and Feinstein now?

What the hell is wrong with those people?

[L. Coyote]

19. Nothing is wrong with them. They just disagree with you. So be it. Move on.

It may be pointless to fight this to the floor vote. The point has been made about torture and Bushco's lawlessness has been aired vigorously. It will be again in the floor debate. The mileage from this nomination has been enormous, informing millions of the current situation.

Like an idiot, I once wrote, as Pres. of the Young Dems on my campus, that we had to give Nixon a chance. I'm not that niave today, but we do not need to give Bush the AG he really wants, the current Acting AG who was installed w/o this process. So, it seems we will have to give Mukasey a chance, as we did Nixon. I have more hope about Mukasey than I did Nixon when I wrote what seemed the right thing to say against my better instincts in 1968. At the same time, there is no getting past the fact that this is Bush's nominee. There is also no way around that one. This is what Schumer and Feinstein understand.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. I hope you're right.

But it's more likely that we've been had, again. Whenever Bush appoints somebody we hope that person will be better than his predecessor, but almost always he's worse. So I no longer hold out any hope that Mukasey will be an improvement over Gonzales. The only up side, if there is one, is that the acting AG is a complete nutjob.

[Gold Metal Flake]

22. When Congress gave Nixon his AG, they forced him to appoint a Special Prosecutor.

That SP was Archibald Cox. You recall that Nixon's later firing of Cox was a pivital moment. Unfortunately, we are stuck with too many cowards for Democrats these days.

[Lerkfish]

4. lol! complicity thy name is vichy

[Ian David]

How crazy is it to hope that Schumer and Feinstein know something that we do not?

Namely, that Mukasey has secretly agreed (to them) to declare waterboarding to be torture AFTER all the Republickers vote for him?

I know, I know...

It's a long shot.

But it's the only thing keeping me from making phone-calls right now that would have The Capitol Police telling me not to call Schumer and Feinstein's offices anymore.

[quiet.american]

5. Outrage fatigue, that's all I can say, outrage fatigue. n/t

[helderheid]

6. you and me both!

[riderinthestorm]

8. That didn't take long.

:cry: for our system of justice being dismantled before our very eyes....

[babylonsister]

10. No, it didn't. They're still blah-blah-blahing, but it's a done deal in the

judiciary. And no one should suspect the rethugs will come out clean on this. I often wonder if any of them have consciences.

[mmonk]

11. There is no such thing as a majority obviously in either house of congress.

It's divided along some other line of demarcation.

[MadHound]

15. Frankly I don't think that it is divided at all

One more instance of the two party/same corporate master system of government at work.

[riderinthestorm]

17. This is an excellent observation that always deserves mention.

Corporatocracy obviously owns Schumer and Feinstein as they have been forced to go public with this move. I wonder if these two senators feel any shame at all, or are the fault lines between patriots and corporaticists so obvious now with the Bush regime that they finally feel emboldened to come out with impunity.

There are virtually no cries of alarm from the public about what is going on. This Mukasey nomination lays bare the real nature of most (all?) of our politicians.

This is our judiciary system folks. If/when that falls, democracy cannot endure. It's already significantly eroded. It's impossible to believe that the senators aren't aware of Mukasey's position as a Bush toadie now (who more importantly doesn't believe the executive branch is accountable to the rule of law). I am sick of hearing the lie that Judge Mukasey is the man who can restore integrity to the justice department - it just reeks of lying every time I hear it.

[L. Coyote]

16. What do Schumer and Feinstein know that we don't? Seems we will find out eventually.

There are many hard at work finding every and any wedge between Dems and the constituencies. I hope people will avoid reactionary, knee-jerk anti-Dem bashing under these circumstances. Are we that devoid of pragmatism? If so, we will fail in the end.

[mmonk]

18. Those two earned it.

They oppose accountability of political crimes against the constitution and support further the banal practice of torture.

[babylonsister]

20. I'm sorry, I cannot support these two. I don't care what party they're in! nt