Tag: Mukasey

More voices speaking out against Michael Mukasey’s nomination. James Fallows adds his voice to the mix.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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I generally think that presidents have the right to build the cabinets of their choosing, so long as the people they appoint are willing to abide by the limits set by the U.S. Constitutional.

Michael B. Mukasey, the nominee to replace the constitutionally deficient Alberto Gonzales as U.S. attorney general, crosses that line.

Consider this exchange between Mukasey and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the Rhode Island Democrat (quoted from The New York Times):

“Is waterboarding constitutional?” Mr. Mukasey was asked by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, in one of the sharpest exchanges.

“I don’t know what is involved in the technique,” Mr. Mukasey replied. “If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional.”

Mr. Whitehouse described Mr. Mukasey’s response as a “massive hedge” since the nominee refused to be drawn into a conversation about whether waterboarding amounted to torture; many lawmakers from both parties, as well as civil liberties and human rights groups, have said it is clearly a form of torture. The administration has suggested that it ended the practice after protests from Capitol Hill and elsewhere, although it has never said so explicitly.

“I mean, either it is or it isn’t,” Mr. Whitehouse continued.

Waterboarding, he said, “is the practice of putting somebody in a reclining position, strapping them down, putting cloth over their faces and pouring water over the cloth to simulate the feeling of drowning. Is that constitutional?”

Mr. Mukasey again demurred, saying, “If it amounts to torture, it is not constitutional.”

“If it amounts to torture….” If? IF???????

So, based on this short exchange, it appears as if the president has found exactly the kind of enabler he needs as attorney general, a yes man on a par with Gonzales, a man who will interpret the law to mean whatever his boss thinks it should mean.

Is it torture? Well, it depends upon what you mean by torture.

Should Mukasey be confirmed? I guess it depends upon what you mean by confirmed.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.