Soapbox

No Answers Necessary

I have a question for America: why are we bothering to ask questions if it doesn’t even matter whether anyone ever answers??

Today I logged onto my computer and read "Mukasey all but Shoo-in for A.G."– alongside a photo of a grinning man waterboarding a prisoner.
Wow. Really makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it?

In hearings to confirm his nomination for Attorney General, Congress asked Mr. Mukasey this simple question: Do you personally believe that waterboarding is torture? The question required only a one word answer. Instead we have had a week of tap-dancing, pages and pages of run-around and obfuscations and outright untruths to try to cloud the issue. In refusing to answer, Mukasey and President Bush have claimed the following:

1) It would be wrong to offer an uninformed opinion.
Uninformed? WTF? I’ve seen the video and read the stories, as has most of America, I’d wager. If I am informed enough to state a personal opinion, why is a man who has been rendering legal verdicts on terrorism cases for years not sufficiently informed?

2) If he stated a personal opinion, Mukasey would be putting Americans in legal jeopardy who might have been participating in a program that includes waterboarding.
But Congress has passed a law that grants immunity to anyone who was acting under orders from an agent of the US government, even if what they were ordered to do turns out to be illegal. So that makes this little assertion by Mukasey a…  what’s that complex legal term? Oh yeah- a lie.

3) He does not yet have the clearance to answer questions about a classified program.
So what? No one asked him to comment on the program, or even if it exists. Just say what you think!

Now, after all this fuss, suddenly congressional democrats have decided they don’t actually want to know the answer, and will confirm the nomination. Just kidding about that "needing an answer" thing!

So what exactly is the point of even having hearings when time and again, members of the Bush administration don’t have to answer the questions they are asked, and get away with refusing to promise to tell the truth when they do? Heck- they don’t even have to show up if they don’t want to! They just ignore legal supboenas at will.

And why shouldn’t they behave this way, when, even with a congressional majority, the democrats let them?!  Why did Mukasey even bother to ask congress to confirm him at all? He should have just moved into his new office as soon as George Bush asked him to. Oh there would have been a fuss for a week or so, with much chest-thumping on the part of key democratic senators…and then they would have rolled over and showed Bush their belly as they do every damn time he lies, cheats, steals and rapes the constitution.

It is a waste of taxpayer money to hold "hearings" when no one talks and no one listens! I say, in the future, let’s not bother. Just put a crown on George Bush’s head and let Congress get back to debating a non-binding resolution in favor of grapes, or one of the other important things they do these days.
Because make no mistake- this wasn’t about waterboarding or the legal definition of torture. This little charade was about George Bush asserting his monarchial power over the congress, the Constituion, the American people, and even over the words "yes" and "no". Clearly it doesn’t matter how many wars the President starts or how low his approval ratings are: congress will always blink first.

Ok: so we now have a king and don’t have a functioning Bill of Rights, but there’s no great loss without some small gain. The next time one of you receives a summons of some sort, apparently you can just refuse to show up. Tell the court that you can’t appear because of national security, but that you can’t tell them how it is a matter of national security, because they don’t have the clearance to hear it.
And if they insist, then they clearly want the terrorists to win and must be members of  some subversive, anti-American group like MoveOn or ~shudder~ CODE PINK.