Mukasey the Obstructionist

"Today President Bush has taken the extraordinary step of asserting executive privilege over the Vice President's interview with criminal investigators.

"The claim of executive privilege is ludicrous.

"We are not seeking access to the communications between the Vice President and the President. We are seeking access to the communications between the Vice President and FBI investigators. . . .

"This unfounded assertion of executive privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person. . . .

"The President's actions have darkened the cloud over the Vice President and left important questions unanswered."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy also responded, with a blistering letter to Mukasey: "It appears you are wearing two hats, one as the person to whom the subpoena was directed, and now facing a criminal contempt citation for noncompliance, and a second as the Attorney General purporting to offer objective legal advice.

"Would you please provide this Committee with the legal analysis that justifies this claim of executive privilege?

"Did you consider recusing yourself from offering a legal opinion to the President on the validity of an executive privilege claim excusing you from complying with a congressional subpoena? If not, why not?

"This executive privilege claim, and your justification for it, appears to turn the privilege on its head. The purpose of executive privilege is to encourage candid advice to the President, not to cover up what the Vice President and White House staff say to investigating authorities when that information is requested in the course of congressional oversight."

Ashcroft a Moderate?

Carrie Johnson writes in The Washington Post: "Once seen by many as an extremist, [former attorney general John] Ashcroft, who left his post in 2005, is coming to be viewed as a voice of moderation on some of the most sensitive national security issues the nation faced after Sept. 11."

Ashcroft is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee today. (Christy Hardin Smith of Firedoglake is liveblogging.)

In a new revelation, Johnson reports that "Ashcroft offered the White House a list of five candidates to lead the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel in early 2003, but top administration officials summarily rejected them in favor of installing a loyalist who would provide the legal footing needed to continue coercive interrogation techniques and broadly interpret executive power, according to two former administration officials.