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TechnoratiMr. Mukasey in Denial
Conservatives like to talk about personal responsibility, but Attorney General Michael Mukasey does not seem to think it applies to the Bush administration. In a speech on Tuesday, he described the shameful politicization of the Justice Department as a "painful" episode in which "the system failed."
Mr. Mukasey made no mention of the role played by his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, and other members of President Bush's inner circle. There is by now strong reason to believe that they were involved in plans to fire United States attorneys for political reasons, fill other important positions on the basis of partisanship rather than competence and order prosecutions designed to help Republicans win elections.
The department has never properly pursued the bad actors. It has shown no real concern for the victims. Mr. Mukasey's cynical remarks shrugging off the whole scandal should prod Congress to pursue it even more vigorously.
The Justice Department's inspector general and its ethics office have issued a pair of reports confirming that top aides to Mr. Gonzales improperly used political litmus tests to fill nonpolitical positions. The politics was remarkably crude. One example: a career terrorism prosecutor was turned down for a counterterrorism position because his wife was an active Democrat.
Mr. Mukasey told the American Bar Association that he did not see any crimes to prosecute. "Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime," he said. In any case, the wrongdoers have been punished, he claimed, by "substantial negative publicity."
The inspector general's analysis of hiring practices lends credibility to even more disturbing claims that politically chosen prosecutors pursued politically motivated prosecutions.
Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, has long insisted that he was prosecuted on vague corruption charges - for which he was sentenced to seven years in prison - because he was one of his state's leading Democrats.
Mr. Mukasey should have said that based on the recent reports he is going to personally and vigorously pursue allegations of politicization in the department, no matter where they lead. He should have talked about the exhaustive efforts he is making to get to the bottom of Mr. Siegelman's allegations.
He should also have vowed that he would do everything in his power to see that President Bush's chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, his former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, and former top political adviser, Karl Rove, all comply with Congressional subpoenas to testify in public and under oath.
As the nation's top law enforcement officer, Mr. Mukasey should demand that they tell what they know - particularly about the firing of the United States attorneys - and deliver relevant documents. Instead, he has supported their baseless claims of executive privilege.
We opposed Mr. Mukasey's confirmation because we feared that he would worry more about defending the Bush administration than enforcing the law. His speech to the bar association is further evidence that, like his predecessor, he cares more about politics than justice.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
37 Comments so far
Show AllAnd not every crime is illegal.
If you read on this site, then, you should already know this. That is, Mukasey is the dual citizen Israeli who, as a federal judge, turned the "five dancing Israelis" loose from US detention. When these Mossad and IDF members returned to Israel, one said that they were in NY to "document" the attack.......meaning they KNEW it was coming. If you actually believe Zelikow's phony report of the 911 Commission, you have no capacity for rational thought. The real question is whether or not the truth about 911 will ever come out. Lots of time has passed....just as with the JKF assassination. We are now distracted by the NeoCons poking the Russian Bear, and the NeoCon media totally misreporting the events in Georgia. I fear this nation is lost. Oh, yes, we will puddle along for a few decades before the collapse. But, it is coming. Of course, before that collapse, the NeoCons will have moved on with their many BILLIONS of dollars. They will seek a new host to drain blood and treasure from.
Muck Casey is a scumbag.
Actually the statement "Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime" is completely true in the American legal system. Go look up the differnce between criminal and civil law on google or something, you might be surprised.
Drop all charges against Don Seigleman and issue an apology.
No violation, No Crime...!!!
I've got parents in their eighties here. I've got a daughter, a son in law and three grand kids, all of whom live on the farm that my grandfather owned.
I live in a big six year old house that fell to me in a divorce settlement. I can't leave here.
I know, "I, me, mine" but what can I do? If there was only me to consider I would be in Canada before you could say revolution.
"Have no possessions lest you be possessed by them"---That's a fact Jack.
A "violation of the law" is by DEFINITION a crime. How indicative of the Rethuglican "fuck the law" mindset - exemplified so blatantly by this criminal administration - that their Attorney General, the supposed "top law enforcement officer" in America, actually had the brass cahones to say that a violation of the law is not a crime.
It absolutely blows my mind that this group of thugs and criminals - from the top all the way down to the lowest positions - have not been put on trial, impeached, investigated, and hung from the rafters. Go back 10 years - if Clinton had done even 1/5 of the horrible lawbreaking that this administration has done, his name would have been dragged through the mud daily in every newspaper in the country, with daily headlines screaming about the latest abuse of executive power and laws broken by the President. Yet, nothing for 7 years on the Bush Cabal.
America is gone. Dead. Done. Finished. Finito. We have become the darkness. Move to Norway or Canada or somewhere else while you still can.
Another too little too late dollop of crocodile tears from the tendentious pissants of the neo-con coddling New York Slimes editorial schizophrenic asylum. Why waste our time with their GM bull excrement? This paper now has less credibility than Condileeeza Rice and is rapidly approaching negative Bush axis permanent anti-credibility. They need a revolution to overthrow owner Sulztraitor Jr. as much as Amurka should have had a revolution to overthrow Shrublette by 2004 at the latest. A true American tragedy to see a once proud flagship paper degenerate into outhouse tissue.
RichM August 13th, 2008 3:51 pm
"The Republican Mukasey says, "Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime."
The Democrat Pelosi says, meanwhile, that she'd put impeachment on the table if there were any evidence that the president had committed any crimes.
Both of these statements are about the same, reflecting a total inability among the powerful to perceive crimes committed by themselves or those they're closely allied with."
And yet the political pundits claim to be confused and unable to figure out why Obama isn't running away with the election in the polls
Lobo Gris
Representative democracy isn't working.
FREE AMERICA
DIRECT DEMOCRACY
I hear that Congress is assembling a panel to determine if they should send a sternly worded letter to the Justice Department.
"Not every violation of law is a crime"
Only the ones Republicans say.
Mukasey is committing a felony by failing to enforce the law.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. exposes neocons as "phony conservatives."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNmpI-4yOI
Sorry, had to put that joke in.
De Nile is a big river in Egypt, Mukasey is a government operative in the US.
"WASHINGTON - Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world. They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt."
That was then but today America's executive branch 'outs' CIA spys with impunity for corporate-political gain. Bush's Department of Distrustice supports this sort of crime.
No one in their right mind will ever talk to the CIA or the FBI after this. They are surely to be exposed for political, corporate or theological reasons.
Heckovajob! Will we or our children be safer now?
AG Mr. Mukasey...NY's Senator schlemiels AIPAC guy...
Nietzsche (5:31 pm) -
Exactly.
"...I'm wondering how poor they intend to make us..."
- As long as it keeps making them richer to keep making us poorer, the process will continue. That's why the middle class is disappearing, & the working class is being crushed. There will be no countervailing force, until the process reaches a point where enough people get angry enough & organized enough to start pushing back.
In situations like these, the Dem Party's special role in the political system is to act to deflect & defuse this growing anger; & to channel it into harmless directions where it won't alter the underlying workings of the system. The rulers don't want the populace getting too angry -- not on moral grounds, but simply because it's inconvenient. So they bring in the Dems, with their fake smiles & talk of "change and hope," precisely to keep people from getting too angry. It's a kind of safety valve mechanism.
I think you are right Rich. Their primary consideration, maybe their only consideration, before family, reputation, even money, certainly before service to the public or respect for the rule of law is
"Am I bearing true faith and allegiance to the ruling class of which I am a member?"
Regardless of political philosophy, party affiliation, or any possible remaining vestiges of basic fairness, the members of the international cabal of the super rich would rather sacrifice their own children than incur the disapproval of their fellow members.
"When you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow" said Chuck Colson referring to the North Vietnamese. Of course that was before he found the god to whom vulgarity is a greater sin than wage slavery.
I'm wondering how poor they intend to make us.
PS ... the next election will not be stolen. The key is to realize that Bush, Cheney and the Republicans are not the real wielders of power in this country. The real power lies in the people who gave them $300 million or so for each of their campaigns.
This time, that money has gone to Obama. Why on earth would they fund Obama at those levels just to later 'steal' the election from him? And, there's no doubt that Obama is fully on board with their agenda. To the point where its very hard to distinguish him from Bush or McCain these days.
Nope, this election will not be stolen. The powers that put Bush into office are perfectly happy with Obama in office. For a couple of decades now, the Democrats have been their 'b-team', and their role is to step in during times just like these when the Republican brand is tarnished.
We've seen this with Bill Clinton. We've seen this with the current Dem congress. We'll see it with the Obama presidency unless a whole bunch of Americans wake up and vote Green.
What we see is that they protect and defend Republican policies. Just like the way they've protected the war in Iraq from any cuts. Just like you haven't seen the Dems touch anything like changing trade agreements or tax policy since they took control of the Congress. And you'll see Obama protect the Republicans from prosecution. Just like the Dems have protected the Republicans from impeachment or serious congressional investigation. Just like Obama's advisers are now running around saying "there's no political will" to prosecute the Bush criminals, or that they "don't want to criminalize public service."
Why on earth would they steal this election? With Obama, they get everything they want. If the Bushies were to try, corporate America would step on them and make sure they don't wake up the people from the nice scam corporate America is running that fools people into thinking this is a democracy.
hey sheeple - prosecution is "off the table"
let's get back to focusing on the imperial death machine - we need to kill more peasants in more countries
long live scooter libby - free at last free at last praise god he is free at last
telecom immunity
retroactive/proactive pardons
i love the smell of napalm in the morning
Say "THANK YOU!" to all the Senate Dems who allowed this fool to take office.
The Republican Mukasey says, "Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime."
The Democrat Pelosi says, meanwhile, that she'd put impeachment on the table if there were any evidence that the president had committed any crimes.
Both of these statements are about the same, reflecting a total inability among the powerful to perceive crimes committed by themselves or those they're closely allied with.
Boy one can really see how far away from reality the NYT is. "Mr. Mukasey should have said that based on recent reports that he is going to vigorously and personally pursue allegation of politicization in the department..." How naive and stupid are the NYT journalists who thought Mukasey would do this stuff? He is a Bush frontman. What the hell did anyone expect?
Mukasey is simply offering more proof that Republicans are, at heart, scum. Perhaps that's being too kind and a little vague. The best the Republicans can offer the country is the ones they've voted into power in Washington. And those have shown in the last eight years (at least) that they are criminals, hypocrites, liars, killers, thieves, sexual perverts, child molesters, and traitors. They'll sell their mothers and rape their children for money and power. They're stupid and they're ignorant, except for the ones who are smart enough to sell their souls and their country to the highest bidder. They brought us Mukasey, with the help of two very stupid Democratic Senators, and now they want us to accept a doddering, hateful, near-senile old man to continue Republican morals, ethics, and policies that have the country swirling the drain.
When a Republican Attorney General assures us that not every violation of law is a crime, we can be certain that every Republican in Washington is a criminal.
I don't think he is in denial. He's just a liar.
Open system. It's the politicalization of law. We are no longer a society based on laws. We are now criminals if we have the wrong political party affiliation.
"Not every violation of law is a crime"
Outrageous!!
This story is part of the still uninvestigated firing of US attorneys. The program of stacking the Justice Department with Bush loyalists is an essential part of the neo-con coup. The next election will bee stolen, like the last 2. See Greg Palast's report here.
http://liberationvideo.blogspot.com/2008/06/plan-to-steal-2008-election-greg-palast.html
They didn't use a gun, they were first time offenders, pillars of their community, no drugs were involved, and it was a victimless crime.
"Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime" Are there any lawyers that read CD? I really wish one with some chutzpah would use this line of defense with a client. Take it all the way to the top.
The NYT editorial is correct in the limited matter at hand -- Mukasey -- but its position in the larger picture is risible. Mukasey of course is just another rightwing criminal (whose appointment was confirmed without opposition by the Democrats).
But the NYT quietly rolled over for Bush's theft of the 2000 election. It helped him make his fraudulent case for the ongoing wars; backed the ludicrous official account of the 9/11 attacks, & has (together with the Democrats) consistently protected Bush from exposure & impeachment. The newspaper is thus in no position to be whining about the direct consequences of its prior positions -- one of which is the appointment of partisan thugs like Mukasey.
If not for the intervention of Sen's Schumer and Feinstein, there is a good chance Mukasey would have never been confirmed by the Senate. I can not do a thing about Schumer, but can about Feinstein as I am a Californian. It has come out that Feinstein is contemplating running for Governor of California once the Gropenfuhrer is termed out. If she does (or runs for re-election to the Senate), this must stay with her like herpes (New Yorkers are advised to treat Schumer the same way). It must be an uncomfortable question she must account for again and again (sort of like how Hillary Clinton had to with her Senate vote for the Iraq War) at the least.
"In any case, the wrongdoers have been punished, he claimed, by "substantial negative publicity.""
So basically, if you commit a crime, the only punishment you really deserve is a collective "BOOOOO" from the populace.
Wow, I bet the Soprano family wish they had THEIR own justice department....
"eh!, FAGETABOUDIT!! Nuttin ta see here! RIGHT?" - Attorney General "SPATS" Soprano
"Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime"
Tell that to the millions of people currently locked up in the USA....
"Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime,..actually in the Bush Administration, we like to call them "Business as Usual" - "Mudflaps" Mukasey