Specter Says He Will Back AG Nominee

[spotbird]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he is bothered by Michael Mukasey's refusal to say whether waterboarding is torture but will support his nomination for attorney general anyway.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., joins two key Senate Democrats in saying he will back Mukasey because the retired judge has said that if Congress passes a law banning waterboarding, "the president would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law."

"He could have said a lot of things which would have given me more assurances," Specter said. "But he is intelligent; he's really learned in the law. He's strong, ethical, honest beyond any question. He's not an intimate of the president."


Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gRcgwPvkKFMU-J9UfiuEDq2Y1HAwD8SN1DCG0

[ashling]

1. Is anybody surprised by this?

n/t

[Yael]

9. Not this constituent.

Apologies everyone.

:(

[saigon68]

26. He also backed and supported

Clarence "Long Dong Silver" Thomas

[opihimoimoi]

2. Who wrote that shitty statement for him???? Is he nuts? "If"...whad kinda logic is that?

these guys are conniving as hell....

[spotbird]

4. None of them have to explain themselves

so they don't.

[opihimoimoi]

6. What kind of people elect these kinds of fools.....are they fools too?

[Yael]

10. Careful now

[LakeSamish706]

3. Actually I would have been shocked if he said he was going to vote against! n/t

[spotbird]

5. Me too.

These theatrics they all preform are stupid and predictable.

[Eurobabe]

7. Figures, you can only push Arlen so far...

and then Bush smacks him back into his cage. :shrug:

Nasty email to follow, he's my senator. :eyes:

[Yael]

11. Right behind you

[bdamomma]

34. give it to him 48percenter!!

what a kiss a$$. Shameful actions by Feinstein, Schumer and Specter, and I hope that Feingold does not give his approval either.

[More Than A Feeling]

8. Coward.

'nuff said.

[EST]

12. Maybe I am a little over the top with this, but that vicious little twerp

is setting up the play.
If congress has to pass a law saying that waterboarding is torture and is forbidden, the executive can demonstrate that prior "bad acts" are not actionable, as they were undertaken when there was no specific legal restriction on the practice.

It also gives the president the option of sliding in a signing statement that underlines his claims that no law, save a constitutionally proscribed action, can hold sway over a unitary executive during a war, national emergency, or constitutional crisis.

Spectre's only claim to real fame is the time (as he likes to remind us, boringly ad nauseum) he spent a prosecutor. The man has never had an original thought in his life and is such a desperately unoriginal little back stabber, an ultimate schmoozer with a major in underhanded betrayal, that people of good will and reasonable intelligence, like senator Leahy, should isolate him and run away from him forever. "Should" being the operative word, here.

Senator Specter, imo, is achingly afraid of his own natural demise and resents the hell out of having to exit off stage, being willing to enact very bad ideas because of that resentment.
(What's a little armchair psychology at this juncture, amongst friends?)

[Eurobabe]

13. Specter is vulnerable in 2010, old geezer sez he'll RUN AGAIN?!

WTF? Can't we find someone to beat him??

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07079/770871-178.stm

[EST]

16. I should think that highly possible.

As I recall, the choice we had was either him--or another imbecilic republican who was even worse. Specter is both sly and slimy. I've been at times suspicious, when I have fallen into a conspiracy frame of mind, that he had a hand in the strategy of picking an opponent who was so inordinately friggin awful that he looked halfway good by comparison.

Specter has a bad habit of leaving his mike on and leaning close to it, during hearings, even though it isn't his turn to speak. His constant wet mucous coughing and choking, sneezing and sniffing make me wonder if he will make it for three more years, let alone stand up to the rigors of campaigning for another term. (Which campaigning is likely to be a lot more vigorous than previously.)

[Eurobabe]

30. I don't think he will end up running 2010

he sez so now, but I don't think the man is well. PA better start planning for a Dem to take his seat.

[Ian David]

32. I was thinking the same thing. But maybe there's a better way.

What if instead of passing a law outlawing waterboarding, Congress instead passed a non-binding resolution:

1) Recognizing that waterboarding is torture, has always been considered torture, and has always been illegal;
2) Recognizing that any international treaty signed by the United States and ratified by Congress is the highest law of the land, above even The U.S. Constitution, and includes The Geneva Convention, which outlaws torture.

[bdamomma]

35. why is it that the Geneva Convention is being totally ignored.

it clearly says TORTURE IS ILLEGAL.

[EST]

38. Good Luck!

I'm not at all sure I'd depend on the congress to follow through so clearly. Even with a democratic president, assuming it goes that long, the emphasis will be on "looking forward" and "doing what's best for the American people" and other such crap to distract from the fact that cheneybush must be indicted and prosecuted--which I'm betting they won't do--and that the rule of law is still important.

I regret my cynicism--but not much.

[NoodleyAppendage]

14. Blah, Blah, Blah...typical. Enjoy your spot in Hell when history records Bush's war crimes.

Specter once again takes a shit on the Constitution and enables the Chimperior to move a step closer to dictator. Thanks, you assclown.

J

[UpInArms]

15. did "Magic Bullet" Specter propose a bill to ban waterboarding?

no?

I thought not.

Asshat bush-blow-job Arlen will never get off his knees.

[jaysunb]

17. Why does Congress need to pass a law ?

It's torture and the whole world knows it. :evilfrown:

[EST]

18. The "new AG" has taken a stand that his condemnation of

waterboarding as torture, no matter what we or the rest of the world think, is totally dependent of such a law. He has said he is unwilling to call it torture unless congress does so first, in the form of legislative action by congress and signed by Bush, no doubt with an accompanying signing statement that he may fall back on, even then. This is to the advantage of the conservatives in control, as I indicated above, as well as pushing it back weeks or months--or never--before justice simply has to be done.

With any luck, or none at all, this reading of congress might be just enough to keep such a contentious issue more or less permanently off the table, enabling Bush and his torturers to escape accounting for their crimes.

[jaysunb]

20. unfortunately

your analysis are probably correct....

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. Repubs love the torture

[olddad56]

28. It is right up there with sex in public restrooms for these guys.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

29. I don't think one would like to look in their basements!

you never know what you might find?

[bdamomma]

36. of course it is, and when it starts to be practiced on our soldiers

all hell will break loose.

[aquart]

19. So shocked. Yeah.

[Solly Mack]

22. There were laws banning water-boarding when Bush began his "enhanced interrogations"

And as that piece of shit Specter well knows, that didn't stop Bush

[EST]

23. Good point.

But there were no laws that simply stated, "Thou shalt not torture. Waterboarding is torture. Thou shalt not waterboard!"
Come to think of it, though, there are a hell of a lot of "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots" that these bastards consider to be only suggestions, not commands.

The pretzelnut also thinks he's god and whenever god wants to do something, nobody can stop him. They read any damn thing into the constitution that they want to.

[JerseygirlCT]

24. Such a big surprise! (Not really) nt

[anitar1]

25. specter is such a liar--always n/t

[olddad56]

27. bothered by his answers, but, what the heck, vote for him anyway.

at this point, it doesn't really matter anyway.

[deacon]

31. Well, gosh golly gee, he was "bothered" by this. Amazing.

I thought torture was more important than that. Silly me.

Pro Torture Spector.

[bdamomma]

33. staying true to his form of being nothing but a suck up for *'ie.

[Acadia Blue]

37. He is a wuzzie.