Oh Yeah ...There'll Be Hard Karma A'Comin' ...

A short follow-up to last night's Yoo's Crossing.

Cheney's Cheney was also before the committee yesterday, and, if you didn't think David Addington was a royal asshole before the day began, you couldn't avoid thinking that by the time the sun set.

Just being labeled "Cheney's Cheney" covers a great deal.

I mean, that is the apex of assholiness!

Bush Policy Authors Defend Their Actions

The testimony from David S. Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, and John C. Yoo, a former senior Justice Department lawyer, was light on new details but heavy on rhetorical disputes with members of a House Judiciary subcommittee. Both witnesses avoided direct answers to a host of questions about their roles in preparing the legal ground for harsh interrogation tactics while arguing that such methods had been crucial in preventing another terrorist attack on U.S. soil after Sept. 11, 2001.

And Dana Milbank really nailed it, in his "When Anonymity Fails, Be Nasty, Brutish and Short";

He had the grace of Gollum as he quarreled with his questioners. In response to one of the chairman's questions, he neither looked up nor spoke before finishing a note he was writing to himself. When Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) questioned his failure to remember conversations about interrogation techniques, he only looked at her and asked: "Is there a question pending, ma'am?" Finally, at the end of the hearing, Addington was asked whether he would meet privately to discuss classified matters. "You have my number," he said. "If you issue a subpoena, we'll go through this again."

Think of Addington as the id of the Bush White House. Though his hidden hand is often merely suspected -- in signing statements, torture policy and other brazen assertions of executive power -- Addington's unbridled hostility was live and unfiltered yesterday.

This lead Phillip Carter, in his Intel Dump column to notice "Crikey. No wonder they kept Addington in the shadows; public advocacy is clearly not his gig."

No, hardly.

He looked like a small child, refusing to eat his broccoli, and was going to sit there at the table, glowering, being nasty, cleverly, without actually using the language, saying, over-and over "Fuck you, I'm not eating that fucking broccoli ...!" ... For as long as it took, before Mommy and Daddy caved (and if this 110th Congress will be known for one thing, it is caving).

Tim F., over on Balloon Juice, sums that up pretty well, in his "Your Government In A Nutshell";

Fundamentally, the reason why Bush officials like Yoo and Addington show such total contempt for Congress is also the answer to the question that Conyers asked John Yoo: a rule without a penalty is no rule at all. If Congress won’t enforce the law when the President breaks it, then why should he pretend the law is there? For all intents and purposes it isn’t. Yoo’s answer to Conyers, then, is to lean back, smirk and ask what are you going to do about it?

Both sides of that conversation know the answer: nothing. Maybe Conyers will hold another hearing and invite another Bush official to crap on his desk.

When these cretins finally leave office (Yoo's out already, a law professor, if you can believe that!), you probably don't want to be standing next to them, or, even be in the same room with them ...

There's some seriously hard karma coming their way, and it will be absolutely ugly ...


Bonus Addington Assholiness

Think Progress: Addington won’t talk about torture because ‘al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN.’

Mustang Bobby: Torture? What's That?

Dan Froomkin: Contempt of Congress

Kate Klonick: Quote of the Day: Vice President Is a "Barnacle" on the Legislative Branch

John Cole: Priorities are Straight

The Friday Night Bag Job

Boy, he may not know what torture, or waterboarding is, but our new Crony General has it down, when it comes to Bag Jobs!

Mukasey won't enforce Contempt Citations

"Here is your Friday News Dump™. And boy howdy, is it the sort of thing a failed administration would really try to release after the east coast network news broadcasts ... "

It seems that the See-No-Evil-Hear-No-Evil-Speak-No-Evil Crony General Michael Mukasey will not enforce the Congressional Contempt Citations, against Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, for their roles in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, because ... Drum roll, please ...

"... Mukasey says they committed no crime ..."

Holy Scales of Justice, Batman!

Wasn't it just nearly 35-years ago, in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre", when the United States Attorney General resigned, in protest against unitary power, and the Executive Branch usurping the Constitution?

But, then again, times change, and we may have this Crony General all wrong.

He might not know torture, but he, apparently, has a keen eye, and innate sixth sense for being able to determine what is, or isn't a crime

Get this man a Greyhound Hot Seat Special pass!

Ship this Crony General around the country, he can clear up the entire country's court systems' backlog - probably, without breaking a sweat!

It can be like an inspection, kind-of-thing.

With, or without his jackboots, they line up all the wrongdoers, the arrested and indicted, and Crony General Mukasey walks up and down, perhaps giving him a riding crop, for the effect, tapping them on the shoulder ... Guilty .. Guilty ... Innocent ... Innocent, as he goes up and down the lines.

It is, apparently, as easy as that.

Though, this may backfire on them ... I mean, a few guilty ones may slip by him, especially if they are crafty enough to tell the Crony General that "the President said I could do it".

There it is, the Pass Go and Collect $200 magic bullet.

That seems to be about the extent of any investigation that Crony General Mukasey needs.

No gumshoe, pounding-the-pavement for this Crony General.

No hours, upon hours, under a single, hot, glaring light bulb, of interrogation (after all, any type of interrogation, harsh or otherwise, isn't, exactly Mukasy's strong suit).

Just let justice rip ... Shoot it straight from the gut!

Wait a minute ... Again, we underestimate the Bush Grindhouse.

Perhaps the Director of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, passed along, to Crony General Mukasey, the secrets of "feeling in your gut", after he became the "Human Terror Alert".

Move over McGruff, we have now Crony General Michael Mukasey, not a crime-fighter, rather, a crime-decider!


Bonus Crony General Mukasey Riffs

Eli/Firedoglake: Rule Of Law Still Clinging To Life

CNN: Attorney general declines to investigate Bush advisers

Was The Mukasy Vote Part Of That Rovian New Math?

The Crony General Slinks Away ... "I have seen tyranny, dishonesty, corruption, and depravity of types I never thought possible"

Top Ten Cloves: Other Conditions President Bush Has To Allow Rove and Miers To Testify Before Congress



















To the kennels for you, Canine Cop Boy ... There's a new Crime-Decider in town, and he isn't interested in taking a bite out of it