Giuliani's Man

The reason Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey isn't renouncing the unitary Executive or copping the U.S. to torture is because he's keeping all the doors open for his ex-colleague, Rudy Giuliani. Mukasey's son runs the white collar crime division of Giuliani's law firm (i.e. defending rich executive criminals). It's all here, nothing anybody doesn't know in D.C.

For a spell I thought that he's just dodging the torture question and going the wrong way on executive power because he's basically an honest guy but can't be seen as speaking out against his boss just before landing the job. I thought maybe the Dems were crazy to be drawing the line on this particular guy -- isn't the next nominee Bush/Cheney sends going to be worse?

Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy (D-MA), surprisingly, lays down the law with clarity:

Waterboarding is torture. Torture is unacceptable. Period.

If Michael Mukasey won't stand up to President Bush and tell him that, then he doesn't deserve to be Attorney General.

You know what seals it for me? The rightwing in America won't stop selling waterboarding as no big deal, not us, not the way we do it, not if we do it:

Cafferty: And now Mr Mukasey can’t say whether waterboarding is torture cause if he does, liability suddenly accrues for a whole lot of folks and who knows what the consequences are. Meanwhile, Gonzalez is wondering around happy as a clam. he out to be in jail for what he did. He didn’t answer questions on Capitol hill, he didn’t cooperate with the subpoenas, he couldn’t remember anything when he was asked. And then he’s allowed to resign and walk into the sunshine…

Mardsen: Well I think we do have to define torture. One man’s torture is another man’s CIA’s sponsored swim lesson.

Let's go torture now, everybody's learning how

C'mon surf safari with me.

Rude Friend?

So Mister Bush has nominated as Attorney General a retired jurist pre-approved by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and obviously qualified for the job in a way that Alberto Gonzales never even approached. In other words, not for Bush’s inner coven.

There’s even been some grumbling by far-right conservatives. Hey, if Chuck Schumer likes the guy, there has to be something wrong with him. Perhaps in an attempt to mollify that nutbag contingent, the Wall Street Journal has published “Seven Things to Know About Michael Mukasey” but the effect on the rest of us may not be so reassuring.

For example, he’s so close to Rudy Giuliani that Marc Mukasey, works for the firm of Bracewell & Giuliani.

As for Rudy himself, MoveOn has his number.