Bush taps Mukasey as AG nominee

September 17, 2007 9:49 AM

Mukasey Mukasey Mukasey Mukasey
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese (34 comments total)

Mamase mamasa mamacoosa.
posted by klangklangston at 9:54 AM on September 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

This is a shockingly reasonable nomination.
posted by brain_drain at 10:01 AM on September 17, 2007

You can almost see the spittle coming out of his mouth in the WSJ editorial (second link):

many towns and villages across the country, notably Berkeley, Calif., and Amherst, Mass., have announced that they will not cooperate with any effort to gather evidence under the statute

(emphasis added)
posted by exogenous at 10:03 AM on September 17, 2007

The Mukaseys are justice advisers to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign...In 1987, Mukasey was nominated as a federal district judge in Manhattan by President Ronald Reagan.
posted by nickyskye at 10:07 AM on September 17, 2007

The freepers are engaged in the rending of garments over their disappointment that Ted Olsen wasn't picked.
posted by 2sheets at 10:15 AM on September 17, 2007

Mama mia, Mama mia, Mama mia let me go
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 10:19 AM on September 17, 2007

I like how a lot of the White House press release reads as reasons I don't want this guy to be in the government.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 10:21 AM on September 17, 2007

mucusy. C'mon. muuuucusy.
posted by basicchannel at 10:28 AM on September 17, 2007

Mucousy Mucousy Mucousy Mucousy
posted by brownpau at 10:31 AM on September 17, 2007

DAMMIT
posted by brownpau at 10:31 AM on September 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

So if he really is a reasonable guy (i.e. will uphold the rule of law (and how sad is it that this is the new standard?)), does that mean the Bush Admin is about to have all it's secrets aired? Or was a backroom deal struck (either between Mukasey and Bush or Bush and Leahy) to prevent that?
posted by DU at 10:32 AM on September 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

First a word on the organization that gives us this news. The motto of this organization is "Free people read freely." When it was called to their attention that there are 10 librarians languishing in Cuban prisons for encouraging their fellow countrymen to read freely, an imprisonment that has been condemned by Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel, among others, this association declined to vote any resolution of condemnation, although they did find time at their convention to condemn their own government.

As a librarian, I'm no huge fan of the ALA, nor am I a fan of the ALA's studied indifference toward the situation in Cuba, but fulmination of this kind from Mr. Mukasey puts me in mind of Rumpelstiltskin. Sounds like a prince of a fella.
posted by blucevalo at 10:33 AM on September 17, 2007

If there's one thing that will bring about change in Cuba, it is condemnations from the American Librarians Association.
posted by DU at 10:36 AM on September 17, 2007 [3 favorites has favorites]

So, like then...he's going to honor the requests by the House Judicial Comm. that all papers held by the DOJ and White House in regards to the AG investigation will be made available and maybe uh...begin a rigorous investigation into how the DOJ became a presidential piss pot for W. under Gonzo and consequently fucked up right? And um I guess...he's going to issue the order for arrest when Rove and Gonzo and Miers for failing to appear under subpeona right? Right??

Look I don't mean to be cynical...but I don't see this WH putting anyone in that they can't control like a monkey with electrodes in it's brain...or with any desire to be non-partisan and look after the rights of the American people and respect for the Constitution (BTW Happy Constitution/Citizenship Day everybody...I would do an FPP, but too much work today. Please someone do one dammit.) but who knows? If he turns out to be anything even on the order of Ashcroft (who would've ever thought that guy would end up being a bastion of decency and integrity and I gladly admit I had him wrong (mostly))....I'll eat my (Borsalino) hat.
posted by Skygazer at 10:45 AM on September 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Oh wait. Gonzo did appear in front of the HJC. He just forgot to remember to tell the truth 78 times.
posted by Skygazer at 10:48 AM on September 17, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

So... he's not a nutjob?
posted by Artw at 10:51 AM on September 17, 2007

The freepers are engaged in the rending of garments over their disappointment that Ted Olsen wasn't picked.

As a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal, I'm disappointed as well. There's no way in hell that Congress would have approved, but the hearings would have been awesome.
posted by mkultra at 11:29 AM on September 17, 2007

..the hearings would have been awesome.

And time-consuming, leaving little time to kick the investigations (and jailings!) back into gear. Not that they are going to do that anyway.

The victims of the 2037 Republican Administration thank you heartily!
posted by DU at 11:38 AM on September 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Well it is good to see Rudy's transition team is a work already. It is always easier to run as an incumbent. If only Kerik had been able to be in charge DHS; wouldn't even really have needed an election.
posted by humanfont at 11:49 AM on September 17, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

Mamako Mamassa Makossa (accept no imitations).
posted by progosk at 12:04 PM on September 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

while he's better than Olsen (who was named only make everyone else seem reasonable), he's no good.

They should leave the position vacant til a new president comes--no one that Bush picks can be any kind of honest operator--bet on it.
posted by amberglow at 12:10 PM on September 17, 2007

oop---... only to make everyone else...
posted by amberglow at 12:10 PM on September 17, 2007

Muskie Musky Musky!
posted by Pollomacho at 12:10 PM on September 17, 2007

and Schumer is a complete tool---he needs a primary challenger.
posted by amberglow at 12:11 PM on September 17, 2007

Muck-a-muck Mucky-muck Muckety-muck Muckamuck
posted by edverb at 1:08 PM on September 17, 2007

Well it is good to see Rudy's transition team is a work already. It is always easier to run as an incumbent.

Bingo. Cheney and his crew are thinking hard about their "legacy". They know that if anyone is going to continue in the true spirit of the GWB administration, it will be Rudy.

McCain doesn't have the votes and is loathed by nearly everyone in the White House, the way everyone in the frat despises and abuses that one annoying kid who's always handing around hoping to be recognized. Romney is an empty suit who brings absolutely nothing to the table, except for money that would just go to the Republican candidate anyway.

Rudy, on the other hand, has cachet with both the knuckle-dragger base and the centrist suburbanites who are still terrified six years after 9/11. He's the Hero of the WTC, The Mayor Who Cleaned Up New York, and does a great job playing the Big Tough Daddy that all Americans desperately want to save them. The evangelicals will hate him, but all he has to do is pretend to be anti-abortion for a few months and they'll fool themselves into voting for him.

Most importantly, though, Rudy is an authoritarian at heart. He, among all the Republican candidates, has the will and the brains and the back-alley instincts to take up GWB's true legacy: the dismantling of checks on executive power.

Mukasey is the perfect candidate to begin laying the groundwork for that. He's close to Rudy, he was the judge in the Jose Padilla case, and he has shown that he has a meticulous understanding and respect for the law. Unlike Gonzales' clumsy and incompetent fumbling, AG Mukasey can patiently develop a rock-solid legal framework for a de facto unilateral American executive.

This Is Not Good.
posted by xthlc at 1:35 PM on September 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

...They must link the Mukasey confirmation hearings to the ongoing DOJ investigations.

Democrats should not comment upon or respond to how they will vote on Mukasey. The nomination process is the opportunity to extract concessions from Mukasey. His opinions, on the record and under oath, should be established for:
1. Commitment to assist with the ongoing congressional investigations and willingness to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the DOJ scandals of the past 6 years, with a broad mandate to investigate prosecutor firings, Hatch Act violations, politicization of prosecutions, and reauthorization of the Warrantless Wiretapping Program despite OLC and DOJ refusal to approve the program.
2. Support in helping to resolve executive privilege claims and to provide all relevant DOJ documents and testimony pertaining to the DOJ scandals to Congress or a Special Prosecutor.
...
posted by amberglow at 1:41 PM on September 17, 2007

Mukashi mukashi
posted by SPrintF at 5:34 PM on September 17, 2007

Restoring American Justice
posted by homunculus at 9:41 PM on September 17, 2007

here's what i don't get. why isn't there ever any pressure on bush to nominate a moderate dem or independent to a key position (and lieberman doesn't count)? am i wrong in thinking that clinton and other previous presidents would occasionally throw repubs a bone and appoint more centrist 'conservatives' (in the new, mangled political vernacular) to key positions? with bush, the dems often just seem content to get a loyal republican who is reputed not to be quite as fanatically hard right as everybody else the admin would like to see in the position. the dems just seem to have such low expectations, and while i appreciate the spirit of moderation and compromise, it's just not always appropriate. immoderate times call for immoderate measures. the republicans can practically force the dems to bitch-slap themselves in the face simply by taking such extreme positions that the dem's natural impulse to compromise ends up giving them exactly what they really wanted all along.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:33 AM on September 18, 2007

The problem is that they still refuse to recognize that the GOP are all criminals and that they never play by the rules. Until they start seeing them for what they are, nothing will get better. Schumer should have told Bush to go f*ck himself instead of giving him a list of "acceptable nominees". No one Bush appoints is acceptable--and this Mukasey is no different.
posted by amberglow at 3:27 PM on September 18, 2007

meanwhile, the DOJ and WH still has millions of docs they never turned over, and still has not revealed all info on the politicization of the Dept. Let the position stay vacant til Bush is gone.
posted by amberglow at 3:29 PM on September 18, 2007

He was the judge in the Padilla case.

How can he even be considered? Seriously.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:15 AM on September 19, 2007

And he was Roy Cohn's lawyer at the end of that evil bastard's life.
posted by amberglow at 4:14 AM on September 20, 2007