Michael Mukasey and his support for the Bush administration's indefinite detentions.
As more information surfaces about Michael Mukasey, it turns out that he was one of the most reliable defenders of the Bush administration policies of indefinite detentions in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks. One such detention occurred when the Bush administration kidnapped Osama Awadallah and detained him indefinitely because he supposedly knew one of the terrorists; he was later acquitted of lying about knowing them.
Not only that, Mukasey denied Awadallah the right to effective representation, which was totally against SCOTUS legal precedent, which held that all people must have effective representation. This raises a serious question about whether he has the temprament and the independence to head up the troubled Attorney General's position. And not only that, Mukasey refused to consider the fact that Awadallah had been tortured even though he displayed the marks on his skin to prove it.
His appointment represents a typical pattern of the Bush administration of rewarding people for their loyalty to his administration. He also appointed Roberts and Alito for their defenses of the unitary executive theory. This sordid saga shows early insights into the radical reinterpretation of the Constitution by the Bush administration and the judges who prostituted their vocations in the name of ambition. At some level, there was a serious implication for all judges who tried Bush administration cases -- if they were to rule in their favor, they would get promoted to a higher court, perhaps even the SCOTUS.
And there was a serious conflict of interest in Mukasey's taking up of this case in the first place. His court was just blocks away from where the disaster happened. Therefore, he should have recused himself from the case in favor of a judge who was not as directly affected by the case. But this is also par for the course for the Bush administration when he appoints the chief elections officers in both Ohio and Florida as his campaign chairs in the 2004 and 2000 elections respectively. That is like an umpire from the Bronx calling the balls and strikes for the seventh game of the ALCS between the Yankees and the Red Sox.
To their credit, Senators Schumer and Leahy indicate they will seriously question Mukasey about his role in this case. If Mukasey, in his questioning, does not demonstrate sufficient independence from the Bush administation to properly handle the job of AG, and if he cannot commit himself to properly investigate the political prosecutions of the Gonzales tenure and the firings of the US Attorneys, then the Senate should vote against his confirmation as Attorney General.
Obamathon
