If I may interrupt the BHO/HRC catfight for a moment ... there have been extremely disturbing and eye opening testimonies by Attorney General Michael Mukasey to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees these last couple of days. I don't want to dwell on the details, which have been diaried by Magnifico, CrazyDrumGuy, Smiley Sam, and others, and by Marcy Wheeler on her blog at firedoglake. There have been the predictable and calls for Mukasey's impeachment, and scathing criticism for Schumer's and Feinstein's poor judgment. They're all correct, and they all miss the point.
The job description for the Attorney General of the United States of America under this Administration has been reduced to this: cannon fodder. They need an expendable on their side who will provide cover. This Administration's actions are so patently criminal and fundamentally un-American that they need someone to take the flak. That person will get shelled and shredded, and in the meantime the clock keeps ticking and they get that much closer to getting off scot free. A new AG must be identified, interviewed, and confirmed, and in the meantime the clock keeps ticking and they get that much closer to getting off scot free.
Details
OK, I lied. Some of the more breathtaking claims, from tpmmuckraker:
Wexler: <...> Have you been instructed by the president of the United States to enforce or not to enforce contempt citations issued by the Congress?
Mukasey: Respectfully, I cannot go into and will not go into, by way of affirmant or denial, any conversations that I've had with any other member of the executive on that subject or related subjects.
(He then claims Clinton did the same thing, but when pressed does not know if Clinton actually did!)
Wexler: Have you been instructed to enforce or not enforce congressional citations?
Mukasey: I will give the same answer that I gave before, which is that conversations between executive branch members are privileged. And that doesn't mean that I have or have not.
Wexler: Should Congress pass a contempt citation, will you enforce it?
Mukasey: If you're talking about a contempt citation based on Mr. Bolten's failure to appear in response to a direction by the president that he not appear, the answer is no. Because he can't violate that request.
Wexler: Are you the people's lawyer, as you said to the Senate, or are you the president's lawyer?
Mukasey: I'm the attorney general of the United States. And it's my obligation to enforce all legally binding precedent.
Yes, Michael Mukasey fully deserves impeachment, but time at this point is not on our side, and spending time and energy on him is playing the Administration's game. There has been progress made: the AG used to be there for obfuscation. But now that that cover has been flushed (thanks to the work of Leahy and Conyers) they don't even care anymore. They'll let Mukasey take incoming fire until he's useless, then they'll discard him, rinse, lather, and repeat. They'll insist on Bradbury and get into a long confirmation fight and run out the clock. And in the extremely remote event that we get a true AG who will be the "people's lawyer", the stone wall will simply move from between the Congress and the DOJ to between the DOJ and the White House.
The evils of this Administration come right from the top, and that's where we must focus the effort. This is an extra-legal government successfully imposed on us because we are either too scared or do not care quite enough to regain our government. They know this, and willingly bet that we'll do nothing as they gut our Constitution. At most we'll concentrate our fire on the cannon fodder, perhaps even progress from the Strongly Worded Letter to issuing contempt citations (safe to do now that Mukasey has said that they'll be ignored). Let's make them eat that bet. Ignore the decoys. Ignore the cannon fodder.
Why now?
They'll be leaving in 11 months, after all. But 4. they can do a lot of damage yet in 11 months; 3. it is just possible that the Democrats do not win, or do not win big enough to rectify the damage; 2. their actions set a ghastly precedent. And 1. Presidential pardons. They cannot be allowed to get away with this.
What now?
You know the drill. You can find your Rep here, your Senators here. Impeachment starts in the House, but Senate support is necessary. Make yourself heard! Draft family, friends, coworkers.
If you have legal expertise, get analysis out to the wider public. Same if you have historical expertise. (Heck, do it even if you don't). Let's take our country back.