No Input from DOJ
The WaPo reveals that the White House pulled the Clement-Keisler headfake with no input from DOJ.
While Mukasey’s nomination is pending, the Justice Departmentwill be run by former civil division chief Peter D. Keisler, aconservative appointee who this week was a surprise replacement in thatrole for Solicitor General Paul D. Clement.Clement, who was publicly tagged last month as the temporaryreplacement for Gonzales, wound up officially taking the helm at 12:01a.m. Monday and relinquishing it 24 hours later, officials said.
The switch was made on Sunday by the White House with no input fromJustice Department officials, said two sources with knowledge of thematter. The change added another level of uncertainty to life at theJustice Department, where nearly every top senior official has resignedin the wake of controversies under Gonzales.
The article goes on to suggest that Chuck Schumer (whose pick Mukasey was, effectively) is brokering some kind of deal with the White House.
Schumer, who has been in touch with Fielding, stopped short of sayinghe is brokering a deal but said: "I made it clear to the judge howimportant it was to solve this. I’m trying to make sure everythingworks out." Schumer said he talked with Mukasey about habeas corpusissues, wiretapping, "the unitary theory of the executive," andproblems in the civil rights division. Mukasey promised he will returnwith answers.
Though I think Schumer is pretty shrewd, for a Democrat, I also worry that his attempt to leverage the Gonzales replacement could backfire. I expanded on my earlier thoughts on the Keisler headfake in my Guardian column.
By appointing Keisler acting attorney general, Bush has given the slotof chief law enforcement officer in the land to a longtime ally ofAT&T, a telecommuncations giant whose decisions about cooperating(or not) with the government could have tremendous impact on theadministration’s surveillance policies.
[snip]
The longer Democrats stall Mukasey’s approval in the Senate, thelonger they’ll leave the telecommunications fox in charge of theprivacy hen house. Democrats can hold out for the documents they’vebeen demanding for years; if they do so, they may finally learn what itwas about the warrantless wiretap program that so greatly disturbedformer administration officials like James Comey. But in doing so they leave allies of the telecommunications industryin remarkable position to influence the administration’s ongoing agenda- and perhaps to institutionalize the existing surveillance program.
Like I said, Schumer is pretty smart. I just hope he knows what he’s doing. And I hope the brokered deal doesn’t replace an investigation.
As usual.
A lot of sound and fury sigifying not much.
Mr. Schumer is a serious embarrassment to us all. He seems incapable of taking any position without doing a 180 the next morning. He use to be for law an order, this year, he is not. Would that spineless toadies like this would calmly retire and manage their mental problems privately. What is up NY, do you actually like this guy?
I start with the proposition that the Federalist Society is a subversive organization.
Keisler may be in at DOJ to make sure that the â€sleeper cells†of Federalist appointees that Bush planted stay intact, or get moved into civil service positions from appointed positions to make them harder to remove.
Clement, apparently, counts for nothing in BushCo’s eyes.
First job for the new AG: Find out what Keisler did as interim AG and report every bit of it to Congress.
Hmm… No input from DOJ on the robbing Paul to pay Peter (or something like that). Still sounds like Cheney payback, probably for the DOJ rebellion of 2004.
One of two people is getting taken for a ride, here. Either Schumer or Fred Feilding. I hope it is Fielding. It seems pretty clear that Schumer has reason to believe he will get what he wants from the prospective AG, and Fielding seems to think the same thing. Somebody is getting snowed, and I hope it ain’t our guy.
Albert Fall – It would be an interesting legal exercise to apply the RICO statutes to the behavior of the current justice department in collusion (active, or passive, I wonder?) with the Federalist Society. There is a good reason to make the Federalist Society a part of the investigation(s) into the attorney firing scheme, considering that membership in the society seemed to be a prerequisite for applicants to be corruptly favored in the hiring process.
Here’s a way to look at the big picture of what Bush and Cheney have done to the rest of US:
In the normal Constitutional Construction, the three branches of Government work together to craft and support One Monolithic Law for All. That Law, the Law of the Land, sits like an umbrella over All of US. Our Representatives can create Law within the Context of the Constitution, shape policies within that Law, and interpret that Law within the Context of the Constitution, but the application of that Law is equal for All.
Bush and Cheney have said, however, there exists a ’Context’ within the Constitution – President acting as CIC during time of War and National Emergency – that creates a 4th Branch, which sets itself up, in secret, On Top of the Umbrella of the One Law.
Mind you, the Constitutional entity of the Executive Branch doesn’t vanish, it’s retained for Administrative purposes (and propaganda to disguise the existence of the 4th Branch) to fulfill its function within the Constitution.
So, initially set-up in the shadows behind the Executive Branch, and above the One Law, the 4th Branch would be both a ’secret’ and immune from the One Law, as the rest of US know it.
There is no reason not to think – except, that it ’looks’ just like Treason – that the 4th Branch would secretly ’elevate’ or ’co-opt’ members of the Legislative and Judicial Branches into the Secret of the 4th Branch – whose Private Narrative of ’Saving the Country from Imminent Peril’ is the ’reason’ for the secrecy, and the ’forgiveness’ for violating the One Law. Like being on a Mission from God in a Sea of the Unknowing Sheep, if you know what I mean.
Mukasey can have the finest Judicial Resume imaginable, but if he’s a True Believer, ’read into’ the 4th Branch, then his track record is just there to ’fool’ the rest of US. He’s on a mission far greater than the Constitution or the One Law or the involvement of the People in his processes, at large.
Our Country has been hijacked by BushCo on the basis of a totally self-serving, trumped-up War of Choice, on an innocent, sovereign nation – just so he could ’claim’ the secret right to establish the 4th Branch (a select group of Elites) and operate above the One Law, out of reach of US.
Without Legislative Oversight and Judicial Review – it ’looks’ just like a Covert Coup d’Etat. And who among US – Dem or Rep – would have faith that Bush and Cheney – alone and without any restraint – would do ’the right thing?’
Think about it…
EW:
A couple of days ago I brought up how the switch would play with the rank and file DOJ. They were expecting Clement and got Keisler. Do you think Clement knew about the double switch before it happened? Do you think Cheney/Addington had a hand in it? I ask this because of Goldsmith’s revelations about Clement being antagonistic to early War Council decisions…. It would be interesting to hear David Margolis’ assessment of what the hell is going on in the halls of the DOJ….
A lot of sound and fury sigifying not much.
Posted by: Jodi | September 19, 2007 at 10:19
Leave it to shit stain to misappropriate Shakespeare.
So, what do we *do* about ’the Kingdom’ of the Elites?
Well, we could stampede the People with the horrific truth that Our Government is All Kabuki and we are actually merely subjects of the King, but that would be drastic.
The ’right’ answer here is for the Honest and Principled men and women in Our Government to Stand Up and Lead us back to the Rule of Law.
The 4th Branch, even by Bush’s own admission, requires War and National Emergency to invoke and sustain.
How convenient that the BushCo rhetoric is pro-War and fear-the-Terror? Bush and Cheney Know that Stopping the War also Ends the 4th Branch.
The stakes are high: If the Leadership Firewall breaks down, it’s the Mob or the Police State…
Stop the War: Rein-in the King.
This seems to give credence to the idea that Clement was the one Blumenthal was referring to in his article a while ago. The main thing I don’t like about Schumer is his style. He’s a hammy actor, even in the way he reacts to witnesses. He needs to move away from his vaudeville roots, away from his multi-camera sitcom style, and on to a more subtle single camera style, and I think I’ll be fine with him.
Radiofreewill: I think you have summed up Bushco’s entire raison d’etre very succintly — and said it in a way that people can understand. Between the finer issues of law, the â€who said what,†and the worthless traditional media reporting we get these days, the average person is terribly perplexed. It has gotten so complex that most people have given up even trying to understand, because it causes such a headache.
Thanks!
Does one day at that job affect the salary level from which any retirement benefits are calculated? I can’t imagine that would be the case, but the thought crossed my mind….
Saltin
Oh yes, I’ve been thinking of that repeatedly. Not only to put Keisler in, but to make sure Clement didn’t do anything funny as AG.
If he were a true patriot, he would have ordered a special counsel on Monday, during the 8 hours (business hours, anyway) he was in charge.
So did they cancel or put off the Goldsmith testimony or did I just think it was going to be this week and there really isn’t anything definite on it?
Mary, I don’t think a date was ever set; just that he was to testify before SJC. I think what you are recalling is that his book was to be released on September 17. I assume it was, but, I don’t know if you have heard or not, OJ is back in court and Brittany is in trouble, so it is hard to know what else is going on……heh heh.
sojourner – thank you! If my written visualizations have any relevance here, then I want to give all the credit to EW for supplying the basic material, in context, in real time.
In this day and age of live-blogging History as it’s happening, EW is the Joe Satriani of the craft – fast and accurate.
Personally, I don’t think they come any better than EW I am up to my eyeballs in work, but I just HAVE to steal a few moments during the day to see what has showed up here, and what the comments are. In terms of analysis, it does not get much better than here!
Sen. Schumer is a dope if he thinks Judge Mukasey is going to fix the Justice Department. Mukasey is only one man and DoJ is a disaster zone. Even if Mukasey is a stand-up AG he still reports to the President. I know this thing, called Congress, that can fix at least 1/2 of the problems at Justice just by taking their oversight job seriously. Is there some reason why the investigations can’t continue into the next administration? Why trade away ANYTHING now for a kindler, gentler lame duck AG for 400 days? I fear Schumer would gladly trade any accountability for two terms of criminal behavior in exchange for a few chits for Chuck Schumer. That’s unacceptable.
If Chuck and friends had any balls they could clean house all by themselves – by doing their job as described in the Constitution. Instead we get a combination dry powder/horse trade special from the Senate Dems. Again.
At this point, I wish both parties would go the way of the Whigs.
Glenn Greenwald 9/22/8:
I believe it is this issue which also sheds significant light on the nomination of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General. In light of the fact that Mukasey is unquestionably independent of the Bush circle with admirers even among some of the strongest critics of the administration, the question naturally arises: why would the Bush administration possibly nominate an independent, basically honest individual as Attorney General?
The answer, in large part, lies with their desire for immunity from past FISA violations and other lawbreaking. As indicated, the legislation McConnell is touting empowers the Attorney General to provide amnesty when, in his sole discretion, he deems it to be warranted. Even Congressional Democrats would be reluctant to vest that amnesty power in Alberto Gonzales. link