Senate Confirms Mukasey
In the latest demonstration of what they’re really about, the Democratic Party didn’t even try to stop the confirmation of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General. Despite holding a majority in the Senate, the Democrats caved in two ways. (Three if you count the Judiciary Committee vote.) First, seven Democrats crossed the line to support Mukasey. Second, and far more important, the Democrats didn’t filibuster. The Republicans in the Senate have spent the whole damn year filibustering everything, essentially imposing a 60-vote requirement to pass bills—but the Democrats let this one go by with a simple majority. In essence, they mostly want to be seen to be against the nomination without being willing to stop it even though they have the power to do so.
In an amazing display of political cowardice, the four Democratic Senators running for the Presidency didn’t even show up for the vote: Biden, Clinton, Dodd, and Obama. Mukasey was a nominee so compromised that he refused to say whether or not waterboarding (which the US has in the past prosecuted soldiers of other nations for using) was a crime, and in that context Mukasey also claimed that the President might somehow have powers that go beyond the law. But the presidential hopefuls didn’t want to get involved either way. I wasn’t likely to vote for them before, but now I don’t see any way whatsoever that any of those four could get my vote, even if it means voting for some obscure third-party candidate.