Benchmarking Schumer on John Bolton, David Addington and Mukasey

I was for confirming Judge Michael Mukasey as Attorney General before his stumbles and somersaults over defining what is and is not torture. The fact is that there are people in the administration -- some still serving and some recently departed -- who can answer the question on water-boarding far more directly than Mukasey did. That alone should be enough for Senator Chuck Schumer to say no to the person he helped recommend to serve as this nation's Attorney General.

On paper, Mukasey was a good choice. But in his performance, he decided to lick and polish the boots of Bush administration torture-meister, Cheney chief-of-staff David Addington. When that happened, Mukasey went to the dark side and abandoned the excellent efforts put forward by other Bush administration anti-torture advocates like Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State John Bellinger, former State Departement Policy Planning Deputy Director Matthew Waxman, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, and former Counselor to Secretary of State Rice Philip Zelikow.

During the "third" major effort by the administration to get John Bolton confirmed as US Ambassador to the United Nations, one of the shocking parts of that battle was not only trying to get Republicans like former Senator Lincoln Chafee to stand strong against Bolton -- but to undo the damage that Schumer was doing inside the Democratic Caucus.

Two Democratic Senators involved in that part of the Bolton battle -- one on the Foreign Relations Committee and one not -- told me personally that Senator Schumer called them to say "a vote against Bolton is a vote against Israel."

Well, who does Schumer work for? The United States or Israel? And how ridiculous is that statement anyway?! Democrats and Republicans both have been excellent stewards of the US-Israel relationship in the United Nations. To personalize the national security issues between America and the Israelis was a sloppy, reckless mistake by Schumer -- one that he and everyone now involved in this Mukasey matter should remember.

One heavyweight Democratic donor who tried to encourage Schumer to do whatever he needed to do on Bolton but stop lobbying the caucus was so frustrated with Schumer's hyperventilating support for Bolton and enthusiastic conflation of the unconfirmed Ambassador and Israel that the donor told me, "that call just saved me a lot of money" -- meaning he wouldn't deal much with Schumer or his designs any longer.

Fortunately, Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Christopher Dodd undid the damage done by Schumer in a Democratic Caucus Luncheon and Dodd got the Dems to stand strong on Bolton despite Schumer's lobbying against Democratic Party and American national interests.

That allowed Senator Lincoln Chafee -- and behind the scenes Senator Richard Lugar -- to deploy the final coup de grace to the Bolton confirmation effort.

Schumer has a chance to prove people like me wrong -- that he's not soft on pugnacious nationalism of the Jesse Helms and John Bolton sort -- and he's not soft on torture a la David Addington style.

Past experience says he'll support Mukasey and consider this his "profiles in courage moment" where he weighed the country's interests, his party's interests, and screwed both because of his own idiosyncratic involvement with this nominee.

But I hope I'm wrong.

-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note

Comments

[scooperss]

Can't help but think of a post I read several weeks ago. The gist of it was that there have always been two democrats since 2006 elections to bow to bush. It's never the same two but it's always two prominent ones. And it isn't ever the ones running for president. They might vote the way bush wants but it's never announced beforehand and the two always catch the heat from the voters.

[calista]

My email sent to Senator Charles Schumer
re his support of Mr. Mukasey.

This calls into question your political judgement
in all ways. You have chosen an expedient course
over the very real needs of our country in crisis
-- leaving a man on the table who knows
all too well what torture is -- but who would
torture the English language in explanation of
what he doesn't want to answer.

I suppose that you too would like to be rated a senator who is as good as we can get--
a rather lamentable option don't you think.

You are in the most profound and sad way
an enormous disappointment.

[Senzasord]

It is a simple question really. Can the nominee distinguish between right and wrong. Torture is wrong. Waterboarding is torture. Waterboarding is wrong. By his anwers, Mukasey has demonstrated that hs is not able to tell the difference between right and wrong. Can we afford an Attorney General of the United States who spots such a defect?

[Blink2X]

I just sent the following emails to both Senators Schumer and Feingold. I would encourage others to email them also regarding their endorsement of Mukasey:

Michael Mukasey should not be confirmed as Attorney General.

That should be a total no-brainer, Senator. He represents more of the same from this administration..obfuscation and the attempt at the redefining of our Constitution to fit whatever their particular agenda is. I cannot believe that you would not oppose his confirmation. I consider it another affront to what the 2006 Election was all about.

If Michael Mukasey cannot and will not define as torture that which has already been defined as torture, he does not deserve to be confirmed.

In announcing her support for Mukasey, Feinstein, D-Calif., said "first and foremost, Michael Mukasey is not Alberto Gonzales." My only response to that is that while Pepé Le Pew is not Yosemite Sam, he is still however, a cartoon character and should not be confused with a real person.

Regarding Mukasey's lack of forthrightness to the Confirmation Committee's queries, Dana Perino had this to say:

"...once he is confirmed, then the Congress has the capability to ask him to come to Congress and to testify on all sorts of matters, including this one."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the purpose of the Confirmation Hearings?

After he is confirmed he will answer the questions to determine if he should be confirmed. I wonder if his testimony then will mirror that of Alberto Gonzales' testimony. 'I don't recall.'

Your vote for this nominee will definitively affect whether you will have my future support.

[texanna]

Really, the torture issue is just one more misdirection in the NeoCon PR shell game. The REAL reason that Mukasey is unfit for the job is his veiled, but clear endorsement of the Unitary Executive Theory that makes a President a Monarch. This is just unacceptable! This crap that has been foisted on us by Cheney and Addington and the other Nixonian leftovers is the root of all of our problems. The acceptance of this idea is what allows Shrub to torture and do whatever else he wants to do! The good people of New York should be paying careful attention to what their Senator is doing and vote him out of office as quickly as possilbe -- he clearly has no concept of what the government he's supposed to be part of running is all about.

[TheIndependenceParty]

What I earlier today thought was a scotoma on Schumer's part, ... a blind spot in his thinking, turned out instead to be a scatoma, ... that is, ... the man is just full of shit like all the other politicians who forget for whom they go to work in the morning.

[DasBoot]

Well, it's too late. What a disgrace for the Dems.

And one more reason why Barack Obama or John Edwards must become president. Enough of the insider games.

Angry Democrats of the world, unite.

[petey64]

I am a supporter of Israel, but must the USA's foreign policy be dictated by Israel's foreign policy, it seems that Israel's policy is to fight everyone forever...and as the previous poster said who does Sen. Schumer represent USA or Israel.....America needs go it's own way on middle east issues.

[ImpeachmentNOW]

.
Thanks to the Democratic traitors Schumer and Feinstein, the nomination of Michael "water-boarding" Mukasey will go to the full Senate.

The spineless, gutless Democratic wimps fail again.
.

[Dap]

Senator Schumer also has a close relationship to another one of the "Bad Guys", Senator Norm Coleman, they are and have been in cahoots.

Saying Senator Schumer has a conflict of interests being a United States Senator, would clearly be an understatement.

If the electorate of Minnesota have any common sense they will see to it (especially in Paul Wellstone's memory) place Mike Ciresi in the United States Senate and remove Norm Coleman.

[mommadona]

Just breaking on CNN

Both Schumer and Feinstein (my very own D I N O-DLC) WILL VOTE YES.

Here you go folks....with Democratics like this, who needs enemies.

Kool-aide....YUM.......I am disgusted. Absolutely disgusted.

[CheGuevara1]

Fez (See profile | I'm a fan of Fez)
Good question: does Senator Schumer work for the US or Israel? The same question could be asked of 3/4 of this administration: whose side are you on?

Bring on the Ziophobes. Thabnk you all. I have confidence that all of you assholes have the capability to spin anything to Israel. Get help and continue serving your Saudi masters.

[RobertPaul]

Sen Shumer should not fall back on Israel or some half baked idea that "Mukasey is probably the best we can get".

If this is the Best we can get, then we should just flat take a pass.

Bush will not offer up anyone else and will appoint Mukasey during the Dec congressional recess.

Then we will see just how bad this guy is.

I, like some other commenters here, thought that Schummer was a "Good Guy" too.

Looks like he has wound up being just another hack.

That is a shame. God knows we need some leadership in Government today.

"And so it goes..."

[Vajara]

Schumer's vote is very important and if he votes for Mukasey then I know that many of us will not support him in the future. Surely he will go with his colleagues and vote against this Bush nominee. Let's make sure that we contact his office and let him know how we feel about supporting any Bush nominee and especially this candidate.

[Manx]

I find Schumer's remarks in today's New York Times troubling. He said: "No nominee from this administration will agree with us on things like torture and wiretapping. The best we can expect is somebody who will depoliticize the Justice Department and put rule of law first...If Mukasey is that type of person, I'll support him."

Well, it is obvious from Mukasey's statements that he is no "that type of person."

Mukasey refuses to define waterboarding as illegal torture and thinks the president is above the law. He also said he would not commit himself to enforcing Congressional subpoenas. All, this to protect people in the Bush administration from possible prosecution.

You can't get more political than that.

It is time for the cowards in Congress to assert themselves or otherwise become totally irrelevant.

Mukasey should not be confirmed by Democrats or Republicans.