I agree that the lasting evil of Alberto Gonzales is that he toadied the Department of Justice into the Department of Justifying Unlawful Presidential Actions, and the Department of Forming legal attacks and investigations against Democratic candidates and elected officials. Mukasey is even more repugnant because he took the A-G job as the designated backside wiper of the President's violation of U.S. law prohibiting torture, warrantless wiretapping, leaks of CIA staff, and political considerations for DOJ appointments. The lastest no shows by Rove in defiance of Congressional subpoena, and Mukasey's assertion of executive privilege over materials not conveyed to the President as advice is apallingly bad form. Yet all that stands between us and Presidential coverups seems to be one Linda Sanchez in a Congress of 535 elected senators and congresspeople. Pelosi doesn't want the messiness or the drama of a Bush or Cheney impeachment on her John the Baptist preparing the way for Obama watch. Harry Reid couldn't grab his bespectacled ass with both hands in the dark, much less kick Bush's. It is the Congress' refusal to correct the executive excesses and probable crimes of Bush&Co that is allowing the Department of Justice to be tarnished and trashed. Of course, with fewer than 40 working days left in 2008 on the Congressional calendar, I expect nothing from these people except to get as little accomplished between now and the August recess as possible, and then to do even less in September, even though the economy is in a shambles, two wars continue, and the President arrogantly pursues his hide and seek avoidance of justice, until he struts from office unsullied in post presidential immunity on January 20, 2009. When he sticks his finger in all our eyes by pardoning Scooter Libby like a Thanksgiving turkey, it will be the coup de grace.

Just as Abrams didn't call out Blakeman on the 'president is attorney general's client' issue, Blitzer didn't call out Gonzales for saying that very same 'president = my client. That's two millionaire pundit/correspondent/reporters who failed at Constitutional Civics 101.

"The nomination of Judge Mukasey certainly shows a new attitude in the White House. Instead of simply throwing down the gauntlet, they are trying to meet us part of the way in choosing someone who by reputation and in his career has shown fidelity to rule of law above conservative politics."

- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) / September 2007

"I'm glad President Bush listened to Congress and put aside his plan to replace Alberto Gonzales with another partisan administration insider,"

- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) / September 2007

“I will vote to confirm Michael Mukasey to be our next Attorney General... I truly believe he will be a strong Attorney General and will represent the best interests of the American people."

- Sen. Diane Feinstein (D. California) / September 2007

"Democrats and other Bush administration critics may have their differences with Mukasey, but right now all signs suggest that they will consider much him more than just “the President’s lawyer.”

- Joe Gandelman, Editor-In-Chief / The Moderate Voice / September 2007

Do they teach Constitutional Civics in school anymore? When I was in High Scool in the seventies, they wouldn't let you graduate until you had taken and passed a "Constitution Test" I seem to remember having to pass an easier version in 8th grade as well. Did they discontinue that practice? If so, when?

I graduated HS in '98. My civics class, (called government) was terrible, but that was mostly the fault of the teacher. This was an AP level class (the regular kids didn't even have a gov't class), and ostensibly geared toward the AP exam. There were no qualifying exams, and most viewed the class as a joke. Classes such as chemistry or calculus were seen as much more important to personal success (which is all that mattered).

My HS was a private-catholic institution, and the teacher of this course was a clergyman from a teaching order. He had an axe to grind regarding his own, twisted political leanings, and used the class for his own personal soapbox.

As you might imagine, we got very little out of the class, other than a vocabulary lesson about the system of checks and balances, and how a bill becomes a law. There wasn't much in the curriculum regarding the constitutional framework, other than learning it as terminology. The dynamics regarding the framework of the Constitutional and how that effected our laws, and our rights weren't really examined, and in my opinion, that's the whole key to being an informed citizen of a democracy right there.

I also remember the teacher explicitly saying that we didn't need to know any Supreme Court cases for the AP Exam, and then, lo and behold, "Marbury vs. Madison," "Plessy vs. Ferguson," "Brown v. Board of Education" were all essay questions.

I worked on the Exam, sorely lacked the instruction needed to take it, and got a 2... no college credit. The only kids who did well on the exam from our class were the ones who smuggled their gov't books into the exam and cheated...

God Bless America, eh?

In being questioned in a hearing yesterday, Ashcroft also refers to himself, when he was AG, as the President's attorney and the President being the "person he serves". (link at sig)

No doubt there are hundreds of references to this effect from the past eight years. It's the authoritarian way to view power and allegiance, not to an idea or the public at large but to figure and a select group.

Bush isn't a President; he's the Sun King, around which the entire universe spins in adoration, including hundreds of ass-kissing right-wing toadies who will do literally ANYTHING to protect the Leader. Can you imagine what goes on in Bush's head when he sees himself in a mirror? What an asshole.

because he is a Republican.

When a party is defined by an ideology, either because it was founded around one, or because it has been taken over by one and anyone who really didn't agree with it has left, members of that party will behave according to that ideology.

If you agree with some parts of the Republican ideology, but not all of them, then the party has left you behind, and you are not a "conservative Republican". Because at this point, with almost every Republican, you get the full ideology. And authoritarianism is the most central part of it.

And this is hardly surprising, because the social and economic policies of the Republican ideology are increasingly unpopular. If you want to vote for Ayn style social policies on principle, you're in fine shape, but if you want to enforce Ayn Rand style policies, you'll need to have authoritarian power. A commitment to something unpopular is usually tied to a commitment to eroding democracy, for obvious reasons. This is as true of far left as of far right.

Lest the childish "you have cooties too" argument be raised, let me point out that the Democrats, for better or for worse, are not united around an invariant ideology. Although I strongly agree that the least progressive Democrats need to be dealt with, I also think that some allowance for individual positions within a party is probably for the better.

I have a very hard time believing that Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, his primary proponents in the Senate, didn't know exactly what they were getting with Mukasey.

Schumer probably thought that Mukasey was as good as any other name that Bush would come up with, and that an enabler would eventually be forced in no matter what, so that it made more sense to just accept and move on, and even look "gracious". Not to excessively defend Schumer, but if this is what he thought, he was obviously correct.

This is an illustration of why exchanging an authoritarian ideologue for even a compromised Democrat is well worth the struggle. When compromised, centrist Bill Clinton and Al Gore formed the administration, authoritarian crooks simply weren't appointed as AG in the first place.

Feinstein's motives are unclear, but were probably about the same as Schumer's. Simply a recognition that with Bush making the nominations, there was no way to do any better.