For another year. Greenwald regarding Mukasey’s testimony yesterday:
None of what he said yesterday is extraordinary, despite how radical and jarring it is. Mukasey repeatedly insisted that even his most lawlessness-endorsing views are within our political mainstream, and he’s right about that. It’s now been seven years that our country has functioned under the radical executive power theories of the Bush administration, which include the right of the President to break the law. Congress long ago decided it would do nothing about any of it, would acquiesce to it, and thus — as was predictable and predicted — it has all become normalized.
Yesterday’s hearing was the most potent illustration we’ve seen of that normalization. But it was potent not because anything happened yesterday, but precisely because nothing did happen — and nothing will.
All day long, in response to Mukasey’s insistence that patent illegalities were legal, that Congress was basically powerless, and that the administration has no obligation to disclose anything to Congress (and will not), Senators would respond with impotent comments such as: "Well, I’d like to note my disagreement and ask you to re-consider" or "I’m disappointed with your answer and was hoping you would say something different" or "If that’s your position, we’ll be discussing this again at another point." They were supplicants pleading for some consideration, almost out of a sense of mercy, and both they and Mukasey knew it.
Mukasey can go and casually tell them to their faces that the President has the right to violate their laws and that Congress has no power to do anything about it. And nothing is going to happen. And everyone — the Senators, Bush officials, the country — knows that nothing is going to happen. There is nothing too extreme that Mukasey could say to those Senators that would prompt any consequences greater than some sighing and sorrowful expressions of disapproval. We now live in a country where the President — and those acting at his behest (see Lewis Libby, AT&T, and Verizon)– have the power to break the law and ignore Congress and every other aspect of government, and can do so with impunity. . . .
I long ago stopped blaming the Bush administration — at least exclusively — for what has happened to our political system. They were responsible in the first instance, but the rest of the country’s institutions — its media, its Congress, the "opposition" party, even the courts — all allowed it to happen, choosing to do nothing — or to endorse it — once it all began to be disclosed. It wouldn’t have surprised the Founders that we would have corrupt and lawbreaking political leaders, including in the White House. The idea was that there would be numerous checks on that corruption. But when those other institutions fail, or are complicit, the fault is collective.
"I do believe he will be a truly nonpolitical, nonpartisan attorney general; that he will make his views very clear; and that, once he has the opportunity to do the evaluation he believes he needs on waterboarding, he will be willing to come before the Judiciary Committee and express his views comprehensively and definitively," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, one of the six who voted with the majority for confirmation.
Added Schumer, Mukasey’s chief Democratic patron:
"No one questions that Judge Mukasey would do much to turn around the Justice Department and much to remove the stench of politics from this vital institution." . . .
Besides Schumer and Feinstein, Democrats voting to confirm Mukasey were: Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Tom Carper of Delaware, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Of the Senate’s two independents, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut voted for confirmation and Bernie Sanders of Vermont voted against.
Clinton and Obama didn’t vote, but both said they were against the nomination. How reassuring.
Kelli Arena says the good news is that this is a very cordial hearing, without the "apoplectic fits" one is accustomed to from this committee. I don’t think Kelli has ever heard about the "banality of evil."
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