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Flashback: Last Brownstone Standing
Democrats Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Dianne Feinstein joined nine Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and approved the nomination of Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey to go to the full Senate. The vote was 11-8, the eight opposing votes from the remaining Democrats on the committee. His confirmation is expected next week.
Mukasey - and his supporters - has faced criticism after not declaring waterboarding illegal. Schumer has an op-ed in today's NY Times outlining his support for Mukasey.
Most important, Judge Mukasey has demonstrated his fidelity to the rule of law, saying that if he believed the president were violating the law he would resign.It's unclear how Schumer's support of Mukasey will affect the senior Senator from New York, but there is a protest vigil scheduled for tonight at 6PM, outside of Schumer's Park Slope home at 9 Prospect Park West (at President Street), to question Schumer's support of Mukasey and his refusal to sign Senator Jim Webb's letter (PDF) about military action in Iran.Should we reject Judge Mukasey, President Bush has said he would install an acting, caretaker attorney general who could serve for the rest of his term without the advice and consent of the Senate. To accept such an unaccountable attorney general, I believe, would be to surrender the department to the extreme ideology of Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington. All the work we did to pressure Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign would be undone in a moment.
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Thanks, Senator Torture. Sorry, your excuse pretty much reads, "blah blah blah."
So, all Bush has to do is something the Attorney General believes is illegal and/or immoral, he quits and then Bush can appoint ANYONE he wants to mismanage the Justice Department until the clock runs out.
I'm so glad I voted today.
Really Chas, president 24% has you all by the balls? Really
With all due respect, you're wrong, Senator. Defending a president's right to break the law is a no brainer. Torture is illegal. You are weak and have let us down. You and your partner Senator Feinstein should resign in disgrace. Or switch to the Ct for Lieberman party.
"Judge Mukasey has demonstrated his fidelity to the rule of law, saying that if he believed the president were violating the law he would resign."
Isn't the point that we know the President is already breaking the law? Has Mukasey resigned yet? This is pathetic.Chuck calculated that this vote for confirmation will ultimately cost him little "political bucks".
Thanks for showing us your true colors. We'll express our gratitude by not voting you back in.
Wimp, wimp, wimp. Do we have to get 100 Dems in the Senate before any Dem Senator will take a stand on anything?
"...if he believed the president were violating the law he would resign." Seems pretty clear from his testimony that the likelihood of him thinking that the president is breaking the law is very, very slim. Schumer's statement really just begs the question, the question that should have been answered during the confirmation hearings.
The Democrat senators are setting a bad precedent by raising the bar and rejecting any nominee they don't agree with 100%.
Looks like Bush derangement syndrome to me....
This torture crap fills me with shame. Goodbye even a vague view of the moral high ground. Hello barbarians.
Our politicians are clearly incapable of doing the jobs we asked them to do. All that evil needs to succeed is for good people to do nothing. SO, what are we going to do about it?