Twitshit de la Dweeb and Darth Cheney have to go all Archibald Cox on his ass. An Attorney General with a tendency to slam white collar criminals, make puns in Latin, tell a dipshit that he can no longer enter frivolous suits in Federal Court without his approval, and who keeps a picture of George Orwell on his office wall is one incredible fucking change from Reverend Ashcroft and Gonzo. The Times article has a bunch of great quotes that should scare the fuck out of the apparatchiks in the Republican Party, the West Wing and Cheney's undisclosed location.
On Torture
"...when the Justice Department sought his permission to force a mentally troubled defendant to take psychotropic drugs to render her competent to stand trial, Judge Mukasey expressed a visceral disgust for the idea, even though the Supreme Court had endorsed it. 'It is not inappropriate to recall in plain terms,” he wrote, “what the government seeks to do here, which necessarily involves physically restraining defendant so that she can be injected with mind-altering drugs. '
"There was a time when what might be viewed as an even lesser invasion of a defendant’s person — pumping his stomach to retrieve evidence — was said to ‘shock the conscience’ and invite comparison with ‘the rack and the screw,’ ” he added, quoting from a 1952 Supreme Court decision."
On Orwell:
His writing was consistently cogent, lucid and self-assured, owing something to George Orwell, a hero of his. Indeed, Judge Mukasey kept a framed photograph of Orwell in his chambers. “He is a particular idol of mine for his clear writing and complete disdain for cant,” Judge Mukasey told a reporter for The Financial Times in 1989, not long after becoming a judge. “I try to recognize when some spongy abstraction is trying to cover up an excuse for thought or analysis.”
On Legal Gambits and Stall Tactics:
In 1995, he denied a request for a trial adjournment. “It is hard to credit a claim that counsel do not have the time to prepare for trial when they have used their energies to produce on the eve of trial 65 tendentious pages of argument” seeking the adjournment, Judge Mukasey wrote.
As the late, lamented Molly Ivins used to say, "Good times comin'!"
How did he get chosen, then? I can't believe The Cabal would choose anyone for a prominent position of any value. Are his positive attributes weakened by ideological fervor?
Do you think they have something "on" him? Naybe he hangs out in public restrooms at airports?
Posted by: Brian | 24 September 2007 at 02:08 PM
Laws? They don't need no stinking laws...until they do. Ana Marie Cox in Swampland indicates rumors that the guy is opposed to a special prosecutor, but there's enough there to not need one to do these clowns in. All he has to do is say sorry, no executive privilege at this end of the street, and people will be trying to kill themselves by jumping out of second story windows all over the Alphabet Land surrounding the POTUS...
Posted by: Crusader AXE of the Lost Causes | 24 September 2007 at 03:50 PM