2nd Day On Job: Mukasey Threatens Veto Over Dem Warrantless Spying Bill

CNN:

In his second day on the job, Attorney General Michael Mukasey leaped into the political fray, telling a key Democratic senator he opposes his electronic surveillance plan and would recommend the president veto it if it is passed.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on the eve of crucial committee votes to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Mukasey was adamant in opposing Leahy's plan for changing the law.

Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell co-signed the letter released Wednesday night by the Justice Department.

"We strongly oppose the proposed substitute amendment. If the substitute is part of a bill that is presented to the president, we and the president's other senior advisers will recommend that he veto the bill," they said.

Read the whole story: CNN

Comments

[LindaJay]

01:32 AM on 11/17/2007

Wow. Can there possibly be anyone surprised by this? Harry Reid, maybe.

[TheHandyman]

09:25 PM on 11/15/2007

When Guiliani was a prosecutor he tried to make defense lawyers discuss what their clients had told them in front of a Grand Jury. The lawyers filed a suit to prevent it as they said to discuss anything that their clients told them was a violation of the attorney/client privilege. Mukasey heard the suit and ruled in favor of Giliani because the defense lawyers were defending suspected mob members. On appeal the case was thrown out with Mukasey getting reprimanded for his obvious bias. Mukasey tell the committee that the President can do what ever he thinks necessary to if he thinks the country is in danger. He then can't say if waterboarding is torture and says that there may be some legal need for it.

Anyone with half a brain should have known that this man was another Gonzales/Ashcroft clone! So for there to be any suprise on anyone's part that he is already defending the President's crimes should be proof of how naive this country's electorate are!

[massimo1]

06:37 PM on 11/15/2007

Anyone, and I mean anyone, could have predicted that. Best to ask Feinstein and Schumer why they didn't see it coming. Oh, that's right, in the words of democrats who voted for the Iraq war, "if I knew then what I know now..."

[pigsatthetrough]

04:40 PM on 11/15/2007

Way to go you spineless Democrats. Now pass the immunity FISA and shut up. Lets face it Dems are LOSERS. Better the lying tough Repugnants than the cowardly loser Dems. Bush wins again, "Bring em on". Ha ha ha ha. Look out Iran here comes the USA. Ha ha ha ha. Anyone see anything funny in this, except Daily and Colbert, who unfortunately are off the air with the strike?

[speakingtruth2power]

04:36 PM on 11/15/2007

Hey Congress!

Do not enable this fascist cabal any further!

They want the laws changed retroactively, to protect their treasonous acts. Fuck 'em!

[Bigtexxx]

04:35 PM on 11/15/2007

The DemoPussies strike again. Nice work, everybody.

[loki]

04:34 PM on 11/15/2007

This is the same guy that only days ago couldnt comment on anything because he had not been briefed. I guess a white house briefing is 'do what your told to do'.

Sounds like our Democrats did their great job once again to help the capitalistic neo con christians destroy America.

[wmbear]

04:13 PM on 11/15/2007

UM, SINCE WHEN DOES AN AG HAVE VETO POWER OVER CONGRESS?...

I have to say, though, the wimp-out Dems deserve this headline for confirming this asshole....

[TheOtherMaven]

04:06 PM on 11/15/2007

Well, NOW we know why the Senate rolled over for this Bushsucker - see article on Harry Reid's plans to avoid Bush recess appointments during the TWO-WEEK Thanksgiving recess.

It was approve this leech now or get a worse one rammed through WITHOUT any say-so.

Selfish short-sighted bastards wouldn't even THINK of depriving themselves of their ridiculously long holiday, while their country lies bleeding in the gutter.

[GoodbyeKitty]

03:59 PM on 11/15/2007

Warrantless spying is the distraction, just as is the waterboarding conversation.

It is a distraction that puts these once unthinkable issues into the public sphere to get people used to the idea and to soften them up.

What fresh hell will the next year bring?

Civil discussions about whether cattleprods up the ass is torture?

[fourex]

03:03 PM on 11/15/2007

Mukasey's first public act is to abandon the public and the law, and defend the President and Corporate lawlessness. The AG's new job description to defend WH criminal acts was supported by Schumer and Feinstein.
They gave us another personal Bush attorney as the head of Justice.

[ultomatt]

02:45 PM on 11/15/2007

Let's make this really simple. Cancel FISA. It has been unconstitutional since it was enacted. It violates the 4th Amendment and should be history. Instead however, the criminals at the top want to grease the skids even further, to the point of literally making the 4th Amendment obsolete.

And no more cooperation with the criminals in the executive branch. Trying to play nice with mad dogs only gets you bitten. Just look at Junior's continuing inflammatory and openly insulting rhetoric as of late (ok, throughout his so called term of office). The Repignicans have nothing good to say about the Democrats they're supposed to be able to work with. It's one whining complaint after another with these miscreants. They are well aware of they're own criminal behavior, and that is why their rhetoric is so heavy handed, to try to deflect (as usual) from the real issue, which is their bald-faced criminality. They continue to point away from the dead body in the room...in hopes no one will notice what they've done.

And the dead body in this room?? The Constitution. May it rest in peace.

[Nonamnesiac]

02:11 PM on 11/15/2007

This veto is just as much the responsibility of Harry Reid, Barak Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd as it is of Mukasey and Bush. As this was perfectly predictable based on Mukasey's testimony and record, the failure of any or all of them to filibuster Mukasey's nomination made this happened. Instead they staged the Mukasey confirmation in a Democratic controlled Senate.

Hillary and Obama, two of the three frontrunners, have their first veto -- of warrantless wiretapping, regardless of how they vote on the Bill, even though neither of them will ever be elected President. They're Bushocrats in Democrat clothing.

[YA]

02:07 PM on 11/15/2007

Is any of this a surprise? Didn't you see the hearings?
Since the Dems leadership did nothing to stop this, the question is what did they get from it? What did who promise to the Dems so that they confirmed Muk-man?
Contest open to everyone: name the 1 reason the Dems confirmed Mukasey?

- My take: he promised he'd respect the Constitution.....more than Gonzales.

[unclebucky]

01:34 PM on 11/15/2007

As soon as he was confirmed, Monkey Man was taken to the Dept. of Justice where the info was downloaded to his "chip" that was implanted during the nomination process.

Now Monkey Man is a channel for Cheeny.

Ugh.

--UB.