Senator Charles Schumer, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who is in a powerful position to demand the most of Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey as he stands for confirmation in hearings today. Instead, Schumer seems to be prepared to demand the least:
Schumer indicated after meeting separately with Mukasey yesterday that he expects the judge to promise to undertake a review of the department’s legal justifications for the administration’s counterterrorism policies.
Is that all Senator Schumer’s going to ask of Mukasey? That Mukasey promise to look things over when he gets in office? That he’ll look at the law a smidge? History tells us that’s not good enough. In confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts, both promised to consider, and to review, and to think about, all sorts of things. Once confirmed they did just that, and to nobody’s suprise they decided over and over again that by gum, the demands of authority superceded the imperatives of liberty.
No, a promise by Mukasey that he’ll look things over is a weasel promise. It’s actually a promise of nothing at all. With his history as a judge, and knowing that he is to be Attorney General, Michael B. Mukasey should already have reviewed the law. He’s already ruled on counterterrorism policies, for Pete’s sake. No, Senator Schumer, today’s confirmation hearings aren’t the moment to ask Michael Mukasey to promise to consider things in the future some time. Today’s confirmation hearings should be the moment in which Michael Mukasey is asked repeatedly to give his legal opinion about whether forced hypothermia and simulated drowning qualify as torture under 18 USC 2340. Today’s confirmation hearings should be the moment when Michael Mukasey is asked whether he will enforce the federal law on torture. Today’s confirmation hearings should be the moment when Michael Mukasey is asked whether he will prosecute those who violate the federal law on torture and conspiracy to commit torture.
If you won’t demand this information, Senator Schumer, if you’ll let Michael Mukasey off the hook, then you’re just a waste of space.
