Mukasy Hearings

Ok, below are excerpts from a story about the Mukasey's confirmation.

Here are my thoughts on the matter, and I could be wrong about the whole thing, these are just my thoughts.

The panel wants to know if waterboarding is illegal. Why is everyone dancing around the issue. If it wasn't important, then we'd get a straight answer. Instead there's all this back and forth in legalese. I think it's safe to say that waterboarding is being used as a form of torture, and it's known or 'known' by everyone.

What's the big deal then? If the attorney general says it's illegal, then he'll have to prosecute those who performed it. I think this ultimately could lead to Bush being impeached, and he knows it. He's hiding behind the interogators fear of being in legal jeopardy, but I think he's talking about himself. He'll do his best to disavow any knowledge of it, and indeed may escape impeachment like he did with Lewis Scooter Libby.

If we got an attorney general that did prosecute, I think it might also make the president vulnerable to international trial. He's guilty of a lot of things for sure. What I'm not sure is that democrats would actually want their president up on international war crimes. It would be an international embarrassment, and it wouldn't help them in any way. Even though I'm pretty embarassed to be American right now...at some times, ashamed even.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=apMMOJofS6Q8&refer=us


"Bush Defends Mukasey, Chastises Senate Democrats (Update1)
By Michelle West

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush defended Michael B. Mukasey, the nominee for U.S. attorney general, and chastised Senate Democrats for slowing his confirmation.

...Since then, two judiciary committee Democrats, Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California, said they would support Mukasey, making his confirmation likely. Democrats control the committee by a margin of 10-9. Five Democrats, including Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said they will oppose Mukasey.

Waterboarding

Schumer and Feinstein said Mukasey's independence and legal ability outweighed concerns about waterboarding. Mukasey was nominated to succeed Alberto Gonzales, who resigned after a congressional investigation into allegations he politicized the Justice Department. Gonzales lost support of Democrats and Republicans because he couldn't explain why nine U.S. attorneys were fired.

Bush defended Mukasey's response to the waterboarding issue, saying he ``does not know whether certain methods of questioning are in fact used, because the program is classified, he's not been given access to that information, and therefore he is in no position to provide an informed opinion.''

The president also expressed concern that a Mukasey opinion on torture may give U.S. interrogators the impression that they might be vulnerable to penalties.

`Legal Jeopardy'

``He does not want our professional interrogators in the field to take an uninformed opinion he has given in the course of a confirmation hearing as meaning that any conduct of theirs has put them in legal jeopardy,'' Bush said.

Bush said an opinion on waterboarding also might help terrorists train for U.S. interrogation.

``Congressional leaders should not make Judge Mukasey's confirmation dependent on his willingness to make a public judgment about a classified program he has not been briefed on,'' Bush said.