Bush to Congress: Mukasey or no one

November 2, 2007

There’s been some grumbling of late that if Senate Dems successfully defeat Michael Mukasey’s Attorney General nomination, the Bush White House may just turn around and offer someone even worse.

Mukasey’s future remains in doubt, but that’s one scenario Dems need not fear.

President Bush yesterday warned Democrats that if they do not confirm his attorney general nominee, Michael B. Mukasey, the U.S. might have no attorney general for the remainder of his term.

The president painted the nomination as a key part of the war on terror during two talks in a day during which two of the Democratic Party’s most prominent senators publicly announced their opposition to the Mukasey nomination based on his unwillingness to declare an interrogation technique called “waterboarding” to be torture and thus illegal. […]

“If the Senate Judiciary Committee were to block Judge Mukasey on these grounds, they would set a new standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible nominee for attorney general,” he said. “That would guarantee that America would have no attorney general during this time of war.”

I don’t mean to sound picky, but as of right now, we already have no attorney general during this time of war. Alberto Gonzales resigned in disgrace, and there’s been an acting AG since he fled from the DOJ.

As Oliver Willis noted, it’s really not much of a threat: “I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world for this country to go 13 months without a Bush-appointed attorney general. This administration has already trashed the place, why give them more authority to do so?”

The process continued to unfold today, including one major new “no” vote.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) has been quiet about his intentions the past several days, but today he ended the suspense.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Friday he won’t support Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey, potentially derailing his confirmation over complaints that he hasn’t taken a full enough stand against torture.

“No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vermont.

The president, meanwhile, is still pushing.

President Bush campaigned again today for his embattled nominee for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, envisioning a “fight on the Senate floor coming next week,” and declaring that Mr. Mukasey must win for the good of the country.

“He’s a good man, he’s a fair man, he’s an independent man, and he’s plenty qualified to be the attorney general,” Mr. Bush said at the airport here. “And I strongly urge the United States Senate to confirm this man, so that I can have an attorney general to work with to protect the United States of America from further attack.”

I thought it was interesting that the president referenced a floor fight. It’s possible that Bush doesn’t really understand how the nomination process works, but I suspect he meant that he expects the Senate to consider Mukasey’s nomination even if he’s defeated in the Judiciary Committee, which seems increasingly likely.

And then, of course, there’s the one inevitable question that’s been lingering in the background.

There is speculation that Bush might install Mukasey during the congressional holiday break. That recess appointment would enable Mukasey to serve unconfirmed until a new Congress convenes, and Bush leaves office, in January 2009.

But congressional sources said they doubted that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would stand for such a maneuver.

Stay tuned.

Fine by me. What a perfect example of this administration’s petulance, stubbornness, dishonesty, and ineptitude.

Democrats would be fools not to take this dare.

  • They should test Mukasey’s memory since the last AG had a “faulty memory.”

    …congressional sources said they doubted that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would stand for such a maneuver.

    What would he do? Stamp his foot and call Bush a “meanie”?

  • But congressional sources said they doubted that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would stand for such a maneuver.

    Yep. If history is any guide, Harry would just sit, and sit quietly at that.

    (And really, unless they stay in session continuously, what exactly would Harry do after the fact anyway? Sue? Really? After everything Bush has done that hasn’t resulted in a challenge? Impeach – but that can’t happen if Pelosi has it off the table. So really, what?)

  • Mr. Mukasey might be good and fair and all that, but he is not a moral man, neither if he really can’t decide whether waterboarding is unconstitutional torture or whether he is really lying about not knowing what waterboarding is.

    I agree… the U.S. is better off if President Bush would just do nothing for the next 15 month.

    One question, though… What could (or might) Senator Reid do if the President were to try to pull a recess appointment?

  • I’m at the point where I think Leahy should cancel the committee vote and let Bush recess-appoint Mukasey. It doesn’t matter who is the AG – that person is not going to be bucking the status quo, and I can’t think of any reason for any Democrat to sign on to it; a recess appointment would leave no doubt that Mukasey is nothing more than Bush’s latest DOJ bitch.

  • if the sjc or the full senate don’t approve mukasey will georgie threaten to hold his breath until he turns blue? and if he does, and we send him to bed without his supper?

    what an infantile little man.

  • The Senate Dems should hold the world’s shortest news conference, with this prepared statement:

    “Because we chose to ask the tough questions about moral issues that reflect on what kind of nation America will be, President Bush has threatened to leave the Office of Attorney General vacant. That certainly is his – and only his – choice. But given Bush’s track record of appointing Attorneys General like Alberto Gonzales, who left office in scandal after repeatedly and brazenly lying to Congress and the American public about, among other things, the shameless politicizing of American justice, it may be just as well that this President simply stops making appointments. We have plenty of the people’s business to do, we won’t be taking our time to beg and plead for him to send us another partisan yes-man.”

  • Anne

    I agree. Congress should just let Bush have whoever he wants without their approval. He’s going to have someone who’s his yes-man, no matter who it is.

  • If Bush wants him that bad then it’s for sure Mukasey will be used to block investigations and to support Bush’s agenda. Bush is in the habit of threatening congress to get his way on nearly every issue.
    How can you have an AG who refuses to state the obvious because it might get people in the Bush administration in trouble and then expect that he will stand for the rule of law and the constitution rather than the administration?
    The senate does not need to approve this man simply because there is no other. There are millions of people in this country and plenty who qualify for AG.
    Bush said the same things about Gonzales and it took the country throwing a fit to get him out.
    McKasey has already demonstrated he is another loyal Bushie and will only complicate the already corrupted, abused DoJ. Might as well not have an AG as to have another loyal Bushie since he has already proven he will not go against this administration. Waterboarding is torture and those doing it are breaking the law and will eventually be punished.

  • I’m quaking so hard I may soil my self at the thought we actually might not have an AG for the remainder of this criminal regime’s term. We haven’t had a real one for years, although Gonzo makes Ashcroft look like a singing legal scholar.

    It’s clear the WH is scared. They would rather have no AG than one they can’t control, and if I were as guilty of war crimes as they collectively are I would do likewise.

    If Leahy is smart he will cancel the vote and let Bush install Mukasey without confirmation. If the Democrats actually allow a vote on this guy, which they will lose, and thereby once again enable Bush, I will change my regisration from Dim-Dem to ‘undeclared.’ I’ve already stopped giving them any money, and I will urge my friends to do likewise.

    Ultimately you have to stand for something, and I wish the Dim-Dems would, but it’s now clear that’s highly unlikely. As meaningless as changing my registration is it at least allows me to look at myself in the mirror without retching.

  • In televised remarks, Bush went farther and declared that Mukasey *would not* be read into any “classified” use of water torture or other torture methods until after/if he is confirmed.

    This just proves the hollowness of his threat — the only reason not to do so like they have done for countless weapons contractors is to try to hold the vote hostage.

  • Zeitgeist @8 – Well said!!! If only Harry and the Wimps would actually do something like that. Doubt it…..

    -Homer

  • Somewhere in your comment, JRS Jr, is a joke about turkeys…

    So true, just couldn’t tell if its should be addressed towards Congress or Bush… or Both!

  • Christmas recess is why were all slaves to the federal reserve system anyway , after that does it really matter ?

  • ***Get ready for that Thanksgiving appointment.***
    ———————————–JRS Jr.

    “This breaking news alert just in…………….Macy’s has announced that the 2007 Thanksgiving Day Parade will take place on Pennsylvania Avenue, with the parade route running from the Capitol Building to the White House. Among this year’s balloons will be a 60-foot rendition of House Speaker Pelosi. Santa Claus will be played by Harry Reid (a fractured fairy-tale of a Majority Leader portraying a mythical figure—seems quite fitting), who will personally deliver this year’s Presidential Christmas Present—a freshly-confirmed Michael Mukasey as the new Attorney General.”

  • OK, no one then. Either way, the AG isn’t going to prosecute anyone anyway. Better to prevent Bush from doing any MORE damage to our country by leaving the office vacant.

  • It’s being reported that both Feinstein and Schumer will vote to send Mukasey’s nomination to the full Senate, so he’s as good as in, unless Leahy cancels the committee vote, or it can be successfully filibustered on the floor – which is highly unlikely.

    How disappointing; I’m really tired of being sold out.

  • You know, the more I think about it, Ashcroft wasn’t such a bad guy after all. Sure, he was a fundamentalist wack-nut, but at least he drew the line somewhere.

  • The Justice Department won’t be put back together again, Mukasey or nobody, and won’t be made worse, Mukasey or nobody, so I kind of like Anne’s idea of the Democrats standing on principle and letting Bush soil himself with a recess appointment.

    Next subject, please. This one’s done.

  • The AG protects America from further attack? I thought only liberal wusses thought that anti-terrorism was done by law enforcement.

    I really do like Leahy’s comment: “No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture”. Well said, sir!

  • It’s being reported that both Feinstein and Schumer will vote to send Mukasey’s nomination to the full Senate,[…] — Anne, @21

    Both from, supposedly, bluer-than-blue States and therefore “safe” seats… Sometimes, I wonder why some of those people even bother to run as Dems, if all they’re gonna be, once elected, is Dimocraps…

  • Surprise surprise, once again the Democrats that vowed to rein the Shrub in have backed down to him and allowed him to bully them. And they wonder why people call them spineless. I am getting so TIRED of the Dems doing just enough rhetoric to get their names in the papers and then backing down from this “president” almost immediately after, the second push comes to shove.

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