As to the vote for Mukasey, as you know there were two. You are right; if SJC had killed it, that would have solved a lot of problems and no Mukasey.

The Senate also had to vote on it once SJC got it to the floor, and Leen has it here.

Shame Shame on Bayh, Carper, Feinstein, Landreiu, Nelson, Schumer, Dodd, Biden, Clinton, Obama for bringing us Mukasey. Why not stand and fight for Justice when they had a chance?

http://www.senate.gov/legislat…..vote=00407

I really did not get that Mukasey vote. I thought it was Schumer and Feinstein who flipped that vote.

Why were the Democrat to chicken shit to fight Mukasey’s nomination. I did not know that Bayh, Carper, Feinstein,Landreiu, Nelson and Schumer all brought us Mukasey.

Clinton, OBama, Biden, Dodd all too chicken shit to take a solid stance.

If all of the Republicans and Dems would have voted it would have been a tie. With Lieberman being left with more of his dirty laundry hanging out in full view.

Do not understand why the Dems did not stand and fight for accountability at this point in time. Will never work for them again the way I have in so many elections.

How can they possibly wonder why so many Americans have little to no faith in them?

Do your job and enforce the contempt citations or be impeached.

Love,

John Conyers.

the subpoenas expire when the 110th adjourns, which can’t be any later than Jan 3 when the 11th is sworn in — not on Jan 20 when “this administration expires”.

And this nugget which is a difference of 17 days which emphasizes still more my point about running out the clock changes the briefing and motion strategy exaclty how in your eyes ricewind? You would do what diffently as to legal strategy given that terrific nugget of info? I’m sure you had a point there somewhere.

I might add that after Condi, and imaginary Sec Def LindsayGraham, and imaginary Sec State Joey the Lieberman went to Georgia (as did future VP Candidate Joe Biden–can the airhead media think of anything to say about Biden other than he talks to much?–how about the airheadedness of the Barbies on CNN–who wouldn’t know a cert. vote from a cert. mint?) that Russia has not moved, and they have instead entrenched themselves and dug in with short range missle launchers in Ossetia.

Respect for the US abroad is also very much in the shitter.

Missile Launchers Tighten Russia’s Grip on Georgia

And the significant point is, that if they don’t move Bates though a new motion or a supplement to their reply now in the trial court, the government will hit them smack accross the head that they didn’t raise it in the trial court if they try to raise the issue later, and it’s an important issue.

The clock is being run out.

As to the SJC vote, it was 11-8 for Mukasey, and had Schumer and Feinstein voted against him, it would have been 10-9. So you’re correct on the vote, but I’ve also said repeatedly that Schumer and Feinstein have cast many pro-Bush votes, and that was one of their dumbest.

Before the vote, I we Ent into detail about Mkasey’s conduct on the SDNY bench, and some of his opinions, and I said to confirm him would be like confirming Sylvio Dante–I used those exact words and I was proven completely correct.

Enjoy Mukasey as your attorney general, and every one of your communications being wiretapped.

Enjoy Main Justice in the shitter where it is.

Enjoy OLC in the shitter where it is.

Enjoy the wrecking crew that is your government.

and at the time the Republicans had the majority of votes on SJC 10-9 so he would have been confirmed anyway.

You’ve said this before and it’s still not true. The composition of the committee on Nov 6 2007 was 10 Dems, 9 Repugs: Leahy, Kennedy, Biden, Kohl, Feinstein, Feingold, Schumer, Durbin, Cardin, Whitehouse, Specter, Hatch, Grassley, Kyl, Sessions, Graham, Cornyn, Brownback, and Coburn. Without DiFi and Schumer, Mukasey was a dead duck.

BTW, as Leen @ 46 quoting John Dean quoting Bates makes clear, this @ 25:

As we all know, the contempt citations expire when this administration expires

is also not true; the subpoenas expire when the 110th adjourns, which can’t be any later than Jan 3 when the 11th is sworn in — not on Jan 20 when “this administration expires”.

And because they had the votes for Mukasey does not take Schumer and Feinstein off of the accountability hook

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20080808.html

John Dean

” After Judge Bates had smacked down argument after argument presented by the Executive Branch, one matter did give him pause. “The 110th Congress expires on January 3, 2009. Unlike the Senate, the House is not a continuing body,” he noted. Thus, when Congress adjourns, so too will the subpoenas for the testimony of Miers and Bolten (not to mention for the testimony of Karl Rove, whose contempt citation is pending before the House for the same reasons the contempt citations of Miers and Bolton are).

Judge Bates addressed the question of mootness head on: “On the Committee’s side, the entire House — and thus any outstanding subpoenas — will lapse on January 3, 2009, and the basis of this lawsuit will cease to exist. To be sure, the incoming House of Representatives may elect to re-issue similar subpoenas, but that remains speculative at this juncture. Similarly, the incoming executive administration may decline to pursue the assertions of immunity and executive privilege that form the foundation of this dispute.” Again, note the tone Judge Bates employs in his discussion of the matter of Bush’s leaving office and still claiming privilege: “A former President may still assert executive privilege, but the claim necessarily has less force, particularly when the sitting President does not support the claim of privilege.

Judge Bates continues, “As with the incoming Congress, there is no way to predict whether the new administration will support the assertions of privilege made in this case. There is also the likelihood of appeal of this decision and, given the significance of the issues involved, a stay pending appeal is at least possible. Thus, although proceedings before this Court could be concluded prior to January 2009, any appeals process may not run its course before that date. At that point, the case would arguably become moot. Nevertheless, the Court concludes that this concern does not counsel against entertaining this case.” Accordingly, Bates issued the decision ruling against Bush’s aides.

If I were to wager, I would say that President Bush will now stall. The White House will appeal, and the issue will become moot. We will get a clue about what the Democrats will do when the House returns from its summer recess and addresses Karl Rove’s pending contempt citation. Given her history, Speaker Pelosi would no doubt like all this to go away. Remarkably, she has not shown much concern about the Executive Branch’s denigrating the Legislative Branch.

Thus, Pelosi will likely go through the motions but wait to see what happens in November. If McCain is elected, she might do something before her caucus takes away her speakership; if Obama is elected, she will say, “Let’s get all this behind us so that the Congress will not be fooling around with Bush once the new president arrives.” That’s a shame – for the Bush Administration should be held accountable so that the Department of Justice’s integrity is never again compromised with such shamelessly political firings. Yet it seems that Speaker Pelosi would rather be loved than respected, and will sacrifice long-term institutional concerns for present-day popularity.

##Dean sure gives Pelosi a pounding.