On Friday Michael Mukasey was sworn in as the new attorney general, filling the vacancy left after Alberto Gonzalez’s resignation.
When Gonzalez left the attorney generals office, he left several pressing problems to be handled by his successor. There were congressional subpoenas to the executive branch that had not been enforced, questions of whether America was, once again, violating standards for human decency in the world and if President Bush was over-stepping the bounds of his executive power.
Mukasey served for a long time as a well-respected trial judge in New York. When he was appointed by President Bush I was hoping that he come to Washington free of bias — ready to hold all parties to the law of our land. Needles to say, my wishes did not come true.
Mukasey immediately folded to become President Bush’s next aid. During the confirmation process he refused to make a commitment to enforce congressional subpoenas. Mukasey also stated that he believed our president had the right to negate laws. Evidently all men are created equal in our country — except the president of course — he can do whatever he wants.
During his confirmation hearing Mukasey was questioned on the interrogation technique of waterboarding. During the questioning from senators, he would neither confirm nor deny the method of waterboarding as torture and eluded to the fact he won’t require American’s to follow the guidelines set at Geneva Conventions during wartime.
When all is said and done Mukasey is a tribute; he reminds us that President Bush has successfully managed to destroy the office of Attorney General. It all began back with Bush’s first appointment, John Ashcroft. Ashcroft aided Bush in his efforts to pass the Patriot Act.
While in office, Ashcroft continued to provide assistance to the Bush White House by finding as many ways as possible for them to get around the Geneva Conventions. Following Ashcroft’s departure, Bush brought forth a new shining star, Alberto Gonzalez.
Gonzalez’s track record included covering up the Executive Branch’s footprints when they broke the law, fighting to take away any human rights belonging to foreign people and illegally firing every democrat he could find in the Judicial Branch. Fortunately, Gonzalez was called to question over his actions and had no choice but to resign. Now we have Mukasey, eager to see what he can do in the little time he has.
Something has got to change. The Attorney General’s role is to be unbiased and uphold the laws of our land. Our founding fathers created our governing system to have a balance of power. When a particular part of our government breaks the original system by bringing in unconstitutional bias it throws off the balance of power. We, as Americans, cannot stand for this.
We are quickly becoming the bullies of the world: the country that legalizes torture and appoints themselves as the police force. Please join me in writing our representative and letting them know that this is not OK. We will not stand for the demoralization of America by allowing torture to be acceptable and the government to be corrupt.
What do you think of Bush’s choice for Attorney General? Tell us at [email protected].
