Bush Moves to Save Mukasey Nomination
By SCOTT SHANE and DAVID STOUT
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 — President Bush went on the offensive today to salvage the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey to be attorney general, declaring that Mr. Mukasey is being mistreated by some senators and that his service is urgently needed while the nation is “at war.”
“Judge Mukasey is not being treated fairly,” the president said, after taking the extraordinary step of inviting a group of reporters into the Oval Office to vent his feelings. Sitting behind his desk and leaning back in his chair, Mr. Bush said he was concerned that some people may have “lost sight of the fact that we’re at war.”
It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for Mr. Bush to usher a small group of journalists into the Oval Office. The venue, in addition to the intensity of the president’s words, gave a strong signal that Mr. Bush thinks the nomination of Mr. Mukasey, once seen as a sure thing, is in trouble over his responses to questions about what constitutes illegal torture. A crucial Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination is set for Tuesday.
“It is time to get his nomination to the floor so the Senate can vote him up or down,” Mr. Bush said. Democrats have a 10-to-9 advantage on the judiciary committee, and in the event that a party-line vote goes against the nominee it is by no means certain that Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, would allow the nomination to go to the Senate floor.
Mr. Mukasey has adamantly refused to declare waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, illegal. In doing so, he has been steering clear of a potential legal quagmire for the Bush administration: criminal prosecution or lawsuits against Central Intelligence Agency officers who used the harsh interrogation practice and those who authorized it, legal experts say.
(Continued here.)
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 — President Bush went on the offensive today to salvage the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey to be attorney general, declaring that Mr. Mukasey is being mistreated by some senators and that his service is urgently needed while the nation is “at war.”
“Judge Mukasey is not being treated fairly,” the president said, after taking the extraordinary step of inviting a group of reporters into the Oval Office to vent his feelings. Sitting behind his desk and leaning back in his chair, Mr. Bush said he was concerned that some people may have “lost sight of the fact that we’re at war.”
It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for Mr. Bush to usher a small group of journalists into the Oval Office. The venue, in addition to the intensity of the president’s words, gave a strong signal that Mr. Bush thinks the nomination of Mr. Mukasey, once seen as a sure thing, is in trouble over his responses to questions about what constitutes illegal torture. A crucial Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination is set for Tuesday.
“It is time to get his nomination to the floor so the Senate can vote him up or down,” Mr. Bush said. Democrats have a 10-to-9 advantage on the judiciary committee, and in the event that a party-line vote goes against the nominee it is by no means certain that Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, would allow the nomination to go to the Senate floor.
Mr. Mukasey has adamantly refused to declare waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, illegal. In doing so, he has been steering clear of a potential legal quagmire for the Bush administration: criminal prosecution or lawsuits against Central Intelligence Agency officers who used the harsh interrogation practice and those who authorized it, legal experts say.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
The Washington Post is reporting that Bush administration is “noncommittal” to a request by Senator Arlen Specter to brief Judiciary Committee members on the C.I.A. program, so that “we can talk it out amongst ourselves and try to come to a consensus.”
So, why would the Bush administration be “noncommittal”?
I offer my own assessment in my commentary that Bush is protecting waterboarding for image-building much like Saddam Hussein used WMD.
Is waterboarding torture? That shouldn’t be a question. The question should be, “What techniques are effective?” Torture does not produce viable intelligence hence it is not effective.
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