Friggin' Specter again

Senator Arlen Specter, arguably the elder statesman and cooler head on the Republican side, is doing it again. He has a special problem with nominations during the Bush administration, holding his nose to approve the nominations of several anti-New Deal, anti-worker, anti-Me judges.

Now he's making a terrible and gratuitous concession to the dark side. Torture is illegal in the US, meaning the US government and our citizens are not allowed to do it. Waterboarding is torture. By refusing to accede that point, Mukasey paints himself as a politician. If he says it's not torture he won't be nominated. If he says it is torture he may be nominated to preside at Justice while war crimes prosecutions are assembled.

I'm okay with no head at Justice. We Americans have local judges and police, mayors, parents, all kinds of people in positions of authority who belong in our lives. Bush's AG has traditionally been the enabler for the decider, and not the advocate of public safety and order. The war on drugs, for example, doesn't need Mukasey, who would be more likely recruited to the cause of insider trading and corporate immunity.

Specter acknowledges he's voting aye on Mukasey despite the terrible position he's been placed in, but the important issue is simple rule of law. Bush routinely issues those infamous signing statements, written into the record as pro-forma absolution as he refuses to abide by the bill as he signs it into law. Allowing that wiggle room for this horrible sham of a 'President' is unacceptable. Mukasey's limp position here means Bush won't be prosecuted even though the technique is illegal because torture is illegal and waterboarding is torture.

Once again, this should invite another investigation. We were promised investigations by Fox, by the Republicans losing their seats, by the Democrats coming into power. Now they're in, and I'm glad they're strategizing for '08 and beyond. But we need to declaw these bastards and the front burner right now is assigning a lawyer to Justice who would hold the line and bring the administration back into the light.