The traitorous Feinstein and Schumer. Shame on them!
The WaPo reports:
"The nomination fight over attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey effectively came to an end yesterday, as two key Senate Democrats parted from their colleagues and announced their support for the former judge despite his controversial statements on torture.
The orchestrated announcements by Sens. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) virtually guarantee that Mukasey will be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, to be followed by his likely confirmation in the full Senate later in the month."
May the names of Schumer and Feinstein go down in the annals of infamy. Nice job handing a lame duck president with no public support another crushing victory. And it's especially galling that with these votes for Bush Feinstien and Schumer are basically saying that torture is A-OK. That's the message W. is going to take from this.
But not to worry, Chucky Schumer says "Mukasey told him in a private meeting yesterday that he would enforce any anti-waterboarding law passed by Congress." Well, that should be good enough for the rest of us, right? He didn't seem to know exactly what waterboaring was a week ago, but now he's ready to enforce a ban if Congress passes a law.
Of course, if Congress were to pass a bill outlawing waterboarding (the chances of that actually happening being very slim from this scardy-cat Congress) Mukasey wouldn't have an opportunity to enforce it because W. would just nullify the law with a signing statement.
But, isn't waterboarding already illegal under US law? What about Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions? When the Senate ratifies a treaty, that's the law of the land, right? The Supreme Court in its Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ruling said Article 3 applied to detainees at Gitmo.
Mukasey, though, isn't so sure. According to an article in the NYT regarding his testimony to Congress he favors a narrow reading Hamdan. The legal director Human Rights First is quoted saying "He seems to be leaving room for the argument made in the torture memos that the executive does have room to violate the Geneva Conventions."
Oh yes, the torture memo, which is still in effect. What is he going to do about them? Who knows.
But Chuck and Diane say he can be trusted.
"The nomination fight over attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey effectively came to an end yesterday, as two key Senate Democrats parted from their colleagues and announced their support for the former judge despite his controversial statements on torture.
The orchestrated announcements by Sens. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) virtually guarantee that Mukasey will be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, to be followed by his likely confirmation in the full Senate later in the month."
May the names of Schumer and Feinstein go down in the annals of infamy. Nice job handing a lame duck president with no public support another crushing victory. And it's especially galling that with these votes for Bush Feinstien and Schumer are basically saying that torture is A-OK. That's the message W. is going to take from this.
But not to worry, Chucky Schumer says "Mukasey told him in a private meeting yesterday that he would enforce any anti-waterboarding law passed by Congress." Well, that should be good enough for the rest of us, right? He didn't seem to know exactly what waterboaring was a week ago, but now he's ready to enforce a ban if Congress passes a law.
Of course, if Congress were to pass a bill outlawing waterboarding (the chances of that actually happening being very slim from this scardy-cat Congress) Mukasey wouldn't have an opportunity to enforce it because W. would just nullify the law with a signing statement.
But, isn't waterboarding already illegal under US law? What about Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions? When the Senate ratifies a treaty, that's the law of the land, right? The Supreme Court in its Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ruling said Article 3 applied to detainees at Gitmo.
Mukasey, though, isn't so sure. According to an article in the NYT regarding his testimony to Congress he favors a narrow reading Hamdan. The legal director Human Rights First is quoted saying "He seems to be leaving room for the argument made in the torture memos that the executive does have room to violate the Geneva Conventions."
Oh yes, the torture memo, which is still in effect. What is he going to do about them? Who knows.
But Chuck and Diane say he can be trusted.
posted by William Duane at 3:01 PM
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