Both Parties Suck Ass

Does anyone wonder why the democrats caved on the Mukasey appointment as America’s new attorney general?
Personally, I couldn’t fucking believe it. With his constant dancing around the subject of waterboarding, I was at least hoping that we would get more of a chance to give this guy a once over. If he is so wishy washy on his answers about torture, how can he be trusted with preserving our constitutional rights?

Here's what exactly happened in the negotiations that led up to the rushed confirmation of Michael Mukasey.

According to sources inside and outside the Democratic leadership, Harry Reid allowed a vote on Mukasey because in exchange the Republican leadership agreed to allow a vote on the big Defense Appropriations Bill, which contains $459 billion in military spending but doesn't fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reid had wanted to get this bill passed before the end of this week, and in fact, the defense bill did come up for a vote and was passed after the Mukasey vote.

One key reason Dem leaders wanted this defense approps bill passed is that they wanted to be able to argue that they had sent a bill to the President funding the military, if not the war itself.

The idea was that doing this would allow them to protect themselves in the days ahead when the battle over Iraq funding heats up and Republicans inevitably charge that Dems are refusing to fund the troops.

"This lets us argue, `Hey, we just sent $450 billion to the military," one leadership source tells me.

According to sources, Reid went into this week with a few primary goals in mind: Get a massive $286 billion farm bill through the Senate, and get action on the Defense Appropriations Bill.

According to some reports, Reid threatened to postpone action on Mukasey until next week or later. According to a source, this was about trying to force the Repubs to relent on the Defense Approps bill. The Farm Bill was less of the focus and was not a part of the deal for yesterday's vote Reid ended up striking with Senate Republicans. Mixed messages were emanating from the leadership all day about whether a vote would take place on Mukasey. But Reid finally got agreement from Repubs on the approps bill, so the Dem leadership sent out a notice to senators at around 7 p.m. that said there would be a vote on Mukasey by midnight at the latest.

What of the talk that Reid might allow a filibuster of the Mukasey confirmation vote?

Asked why this didn't happen, a leadership source claimed that it was because Dem leaders were convinced that Repubs would be able to break off enough Dems to reach the 60 vote threshold and defeat the filibuster.

"They would have gotten 60," the leadership source says, adding: "Some on the Democratic side honestly fundamentally don't believe in filibustering cabinet secretaries. We are on the cusp of a new administration, and we think it will be a Democratic one. Filibustering here would have set a bad precedent."

Of course, this argument will ring hollow to some. Good behavior by Dems now is hardly likely to produce the same on the part of Republicans; indeed, they've already been filibustering like nothing else. And it also seems likely that the Dem leadership preferred to avoid the filibuster because it really wanted to get the defense approps bill passed as a shield against GOP criticism (though it can also be argued that there's pressure on Dems to get defense approps passed for other reasons) and so leaped at the chance to do this. That seems to be the reason that Dems rushed the vote through last night. Critics will point out that Dem worry about GOP attacks was hardly a good enough reason to wave the Mukasey vote through.

"It's important for us to say that we gave money to the military," the source said. "Because when Bush starts coming at us and saying that the troops are running out of money [when the Iraq funding battle fight starts], we'll be able to say, `We just gave you $450 billion.' It kind of gives us a cushion here."

So it had NOTHING to do with Mukasey’s ability to hold the office of America’s Attorney General.

It had NOTHING to do with experience.

It had NOTHING to do with The Constitution.

It was all about politics. Who would look less evil in the upcoming elections. All at the expense of the American public and our future.

I find it about time We The People had our voices heard by those that were elected and sworn to uphold the Constitutional rights the people who voted these asshole into office to begin with.

I am sick of all the political posturing put on by BOTH parties at my expense. It has cost me financially and it will continue to cost me for many years to come. It has cost me my Constitutional rights. It has cost me my civil liberties.

And I’m fucking Fed Up with all the bullshit that goes on in our government. We need a clean slate to start over again. America needs a change in direction and with those currently at the helm, I just see more of the same.