Bush's 'Total Confidence'

"Among the most disturbing aspects of these years has been the complicity of the Justice Department, which has provided cover for the worst of these practices. Its secret legal memoranda have sought to define torture down to meaninglessness, sought to excuse warrantless spying on Americans contrary to our laws and made what Jack Goldsmith, a conservative former head of the Office of Legal Counsel, has rightly called a 'legal mess' of it all. This President and this administration have, through signing statements and self-centeredness, decided that they are above the law and can unilaterally decide what parts of what laws they will follow. The costs have been enormous, to our core American ideals, the rule of law, and the principle that in America, no one -- not even a President -- is above the law. . . .

"It is not enough to say that waterboarding is not currently authorized. Torture and illegality have no place in America. We should not delay beginning the process of restoring America's role in the struggle for liberty and human dignity. Tragically, this administration has so twisted America's role, law and values that our own State Department, our military officers and, apparently, America's top law enforcement officer, are now instructed by the White House not to say that waterboarding is torture and illegal. Never mind that waterboarding has been recognized as torture for the last 500 years."

And here, from Leahy's closing statement: "I had hoped today would provide more clarity on so many critical issues. Instead, we heard references to legal opinions, justifications, and facts that remain hidden from Congress and the American people. . . .

"It is a hallmark of our democracy that we say publicly what the laws are and what conduct they prohibit. We have seen what happens when hidden decisions rendered in secret memos are withheld from the people's elected representatives and from the American people. It erodes our civil liberties and undermines our values as a nation of laws."

The New York Times editorial board writes of Mukasey's testimony: "To a disturbing degree, he has adopted his predecessor's habit of saying precisely what the White House wanted to hear. . . .

"On torture, domestic spying and other important matters, Mr. Mukasey parroted the Bush administration's deplorable line. He was particularly disappointing in his see-no-evil approach to the misconduct at the Justice Department before he arrived."

Torture Tapes Watch

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "A special Justice Department probe into the destruction of CIA videotapes could be expanded to include whether harsh interrogation tactics depicted on the tapes violated federal anti-torture laws, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey testified yesterday.

"His testimony indicated that the CIA tapes probe, which Mukasey launched earlier this month, could go beyond the tape destruction itself to examine the actions of the current and former CIA employees who carried out coercive interrogations.....

"The appointed prosecutor on the case, Mukasey said later, 'is going to follow it where it leads, and that means wherever it leads.'"

I can well imagine some people in the vice president's office bursting blood vessels when they heard that. And sure enough, as Eggen reports: "Last night, Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said in a statement that nothing Mukasey 'said suggests that any of those who relied in good faith upon the Department's advice would be subject to criminal investigation.'"

Cheney Watch

Vice President Cheney called in to the Rush Limbaugh show yesterday to stump for surveillance law changes that would, among other things, provide retroactive immunity for companies that obliged the government in its warrantless wiretapping program.

Opponents of such changes, Cheney said, are people who "I guess, want to leave open the possibility that the trial lawyers could go after a big company that may have helped those companies --- helped, specifically, at our request. And they've done yeomen duty for the country."