Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Our democracy has hit a new low, and perhaps a dangerous turning point, when the Democrats can't muster enough votes among Democrats to reject an attorney general candidate who is ok with torture. If our chief law enforcement officer (well, after Bush) is incapable of saying that he will not permit the government to engage in the medieval practice of drowning people, what does he have to say to be considered a shameful choice? That he once smoked marijuana?

Time to re-read Naomi Wolf's Fascist America in Ten Easy Steps. [Tags: mukasey torture politics naomi+wolf waterboarding ]

Andrew Sullivan has a terrific article on the right's response, and why this issue matters. Among other things, he writes:

The stakes in this fight therefore could not be higher: the vote on Mukasey is about the rule of law, the honor of the United States and the security of the West. Mukasey is by all accounts an honorable man. He must know that he is going to work for war criminals whose condition for his appointment is that he not prosecute them for their law-breaking. By acquiescing to this, Mukasey is acquiescing to the elevation of the president above the law. If he does that, he is no better than Gonzales, a man who never hesitated to give his political patrons whatever "legal" sanction they wanted for anything they wanted to do.