High Dudgeon & Hijinks Continue at Justice

Ill: The Worried Shrimp

~ Just when Democrats think it’s safe to entertain ideas of true bipartisanship during the tenure of the Bush Administration ~

If you thought the matter of Bush’s nominee to take Alberto Gonzales’s position at Justice was the big news of the past few days ~ wait! There’s more!

No sooner than Bush had announced his intention to nominate former judge Michael Mekesey to fill the position left vacant by the fawning Alberto Gonzales (toward Bush, anyway) ~ and Senator Schumer had gone before the cameras to say he was hopeful since Bush had chosen a candidate the Dems thought they could live with, wait, there’s more!

The Judiciary Committee was all prepared to trot off to do its “spade work,” in Arlen Specter’s words, on Mekesey’s background. Pesky journalists continued to ask inconvenient questions about Congress’s outstanding requests for documents in the scandals that occurred under Gonzales’s watch & prodding the Democrats to play hardball White House style & insist that the requests be fulfilled before they’ll confirm Mekesesey. (Which, I personally, would welcome ~ what do the Democrats owe Bush after all the damage he’s done to this country?)

Sometime today, to the country’s great surprise, the Democrats suddenly grew some cajones & announced they would not confirm the nominee with outstanding requests languishing ignored. We cheered.

“All I want is the material we need to ask some questions about the former attorney general’s conduct, on torture and warrantless wiretapping, so we can legitimately ask, ‘Here’s what was done in the past, what will you do?”‘ Mr. Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/washington/18attorney.html

But Bush had apparently prepared for that with another patented Lucy whips-the-ball-away at the last minute on Charlie Brown move ready:

“Mr. Bush…announced yesterday that he was replacing Acting Attorney General Paul Clement, who was to serve until the Senate confirmed Mr. Gonzales’s successor, with Peter Keisler, a hard-line movement conservative. Mr. Bush’s sleight of hand in installing Mr. Keisler is an unfortunate indication that he intends to keep the department politicized for as long as he can.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/opinion/18tue1.html

According to TPM Muckraker, Keisler’s credentials in the rabid right’s could hardly be more sterling, & Bush has twice nominated him for a judgeship; a nomination Leahy has already warned is “controversial.”

His appointment to fill the position of Attorney General until Mekesey (presumably) can be confirmed is …”likely to provoke Democrats, who had been signaling that they’d block Keisler’s pending nomination to the D.C. Court of Appeals. Keisler was first nominated in last year and was renominated this year. Only this May, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) warned that Keisler’s nomination was ‘controversial.’ As a result, Keisler will now be in the odd position as acting attorney general of having to deal with the Democrats who are holding up his still-pending nomination.

“Among the strikes against Keisler for Democrats was the fact that he’s a co-founder of the conservative Federalist Society. He also ‘oversaw the Bush administration’s lengthy legal fight over the rights of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.’

“In March, Keisler, who has been serving as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and previously served as Associate Counsel to President Reagan, made an appearance on The Washington Post’s front page. Keisler was one of the three political appointees fingered by a career prosecutor who claimed they repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government’s racketeering case against tobacco companies.

So it would seem that Democrats would be less willing to bide their time with Mukasey’s nomination with Keisler there instead of Clement. We shall see.”

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004201.php

This is indeed going to be very interesting. Undoubtedly Keisler will stonewall the investigation whie Bush beats the drum for confirmation & hopes the Democrats will once again turn to mush in the face of an appointment, the importance of which cannot be overstated.

And then there’s the matter of Mekesey’s record as a Judge, an entirely different can of worms. (New York Times op-ed, above).

Although not an Bush insider, for a change, there are reasons to fear for the integrity of civil liberties if he’s confirmed.