Schumer names names

We are now on the brink of a reversal. There is virtually universal agreement, even from those who oppose Judge Mukasey, that he would do a good job in turning the department around. My colleagues who oppose his confirmation have gone out of their way to praise his character and qualifications. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, for one, commended Judge Mukasey as “a brilliant lawyer, a distinguished jurist and by all accounts a good man.”

Most important, Judge Mukasey has demonstrated his fidelity to the rule of law, saying that if he believed the president were violating the law he would resign.

Should we reject Judge Mukasey, President Bush has said he would install an acting, caretaker attorney general who could serve for the rest of his term without the advice and consent of the Senate. To accept such an unaccountable attorney general, I believe, would be to surrender the department to the extreme ideology of Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington. All the work we did to pressure Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign would be undone in a moment.

Update: Tim Grieve, like those other annoying anti-Schumer libruls, goes and applies logic to Schumer's wishful thinking. 

But Schumer said that he hopes Congress will adopt a legal ban on waterboarding, and he said that he's confident that Mukasey "would enforce that law."

Maybe he would, but Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy pointed today to the rather obvious hole in Schumer's logic: George W. Bush would almost certainly veto any ban on waterboarding, meaning it would take effect only if two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate were willing to stand up to the president and override such a veto.

Picky, picky, picky.

Comments

[Jim W]

"Judge Mukasey has demonstrated his fidelity to the rule of law, saying that if he believed the president were violating the law he would resign".

Brilliant. Confirm a nominee who would resign rather than prosecute, permitting Bush to install a caretaker AG to run interference until January, 2009. Moreover, a nominee who refuses to condemn torture.

My contempt for the party of Schumer and Feinstein is absolute.

[Ron G]

"Bush would almost certainly veto any ban on waterboarding, meaning it would take effect only if two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate were willing to stand up to the president and override such a veto."

Veto? Why? He would just disregard it. It would impinge upon his constitutional authority as C-in-c.