Mukasey and the Cheney Cabal

Sidney Blumenthal at Salon distills the essence of the Mukasey evasions and points out what is evident to any sentient being at this point, that Mukasey has destroyed his reputation and integrity at the hands of a White House that continues to disregard the rule of law. At the heart of the matter stands one of the most loathsome of the Bush loyalists, David Addington.

In his confirmation hearings, Mukasey has proved he will dance as the strings are pulled. His positions on waterboarding express precisely the relationship between the Bush White House and its Justice Department. Mukasey's testimony telegraphs that the White House will continue to call the shots. He has already ceded the essence of his power even before assuming it. His vaunted integrity and independence have been crushed, short work for Addington.

Blumenthal then ties Addington's work back to Iran contra and the cabal that surrounded the ghoulish director of the CIA, William Casey and the ranking member of the subcommittee that investigated Iran contra, Dick Cheney. Their work at the time should seem familiar to us today:

"These guys don't like the mainstream CIA. In fact, they hate it," the CIA official explained. "They don't like information unless it fits what they want to hear. They hate the CIA because the CIA tells them what they don't want to hear. They want assessments that prove ideological points. They are looking for simplistic answers to complicated issues. They inhabit a make-believe world of moving up into perceived areas of expertise. It's the same guys; they all resurface when Republicans are back in power. It's the same group. It's a system. The similarities are amazing in all these wars we've been dragged into.

and it all comes around to destroy Mukasey:

Cheney's defense of Casey's actions as written by Addington in the minority report became the core of the Bush doctrine: The president as commander in chief can do whatever he wants regardless of Congress. There must be no checks and balances, no accountability. There must be no disclosure to other branches of government, whether legislative or judicial. Oral findings, or, if necessary, secret memos, make the illegal legal merely by saying they are legal in the name of presidential authority. The operational need to know determines who knows.

Now Mukasey, who was supposed to restore credibility to the Justice Department, has been transformed overnight into a cog in the machine, another servant to his masters, Addington's apologist. His brief tragedy is just one small outcome of a long history. The almost instantaneous tainting of his reputation should have been understood from the start as inevitable.

It's pretty clear to me that nobody of any character would ever accept an appointment in this administration, and Chuck Schumer's character reference notwithstanding, Mukasey and anyone who does so should be looked at with a jaundiced eye. In the last months of a lame duck presidency, where the executive is despised by a higher number of citizens than any man who has sat in the oval office, a decision to board this listing vessel should be cause for more than a head scratch.