Tompkins County Against War & Occupation

Dear Democrat,

The Senate is now poised to approve the nomination of Michael Mukasey as attorney general. Late today, Schumer and Feinstein came out in his support, thereby assuring a majority vote for confirmation on the floor. Once again the Democrats have become the Bush enablers and have abandoned the bulk of the Democratic rank and file who so vehemently oppose the “unitary executive” embraced by this administration.

How can Senators Schumer and Feinstein support the nomination of a man who says that the President is above the law? As widely reported on Oct. 18:

Mukasey faced sharp questions from panel Democrats. Feinstein pressed him about whether the president could violate the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA, PL 95-511), which many lawmakers say he did when he ordered the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens. Mukasey echoed the administration’s legal argument that federal laws cannot trump the president’s constitutional authority to protect the country from an attack.

This is much more important than his equivocation on the question of whether or not waterboarding constitutes torture. If you accept the notion that we are “at war” then, under Mukasey’s theory, as endorsed by Democrats Schumer and Feinstein, the president is free to violate any law, including prohibitions against torture, illegal eavesdropping, unlawful detention etc. if it is done to “protect the country from attack.”

Once again, the Democrats have been snookered by the President. How much longer will the Democratic rank and file allow this to continue?

Marty Luster