Bloggers bitch, and sometimes Congress listens

Last month, before Mukasey was confirmed, there was talk about just giving him the gig in a recess appointment. Of course, we - meaning the left side of the blogosphere - went nuts.

My exact words were:

Probably so. Wouldn't put it past the sonofabitch for a hot second, but there is an easy way to thwart that possibility, and they damn well know it!

Don't officially call a recess.

A couple of Dems need to stay behind in Washington. Call the Senate to order every day of the scheduled recess, even without a quorum. I realize that this is the same party that was in a big toot to get their vacations started in August, so they caved on FISA, but damnit! Read the freakin' Jefferson's Manual! Mikulski and Webb live in close enough proximity to the Hill to employ the tactic and not even be greatly inconvenienced.

For every parliamentary maneuver, there is a parliamentary check. And if we don't have Democrats who know how this god-damned game is played, then we need some new god-damned Democrats.

Today, Roll Call is reporting that Reid is considering keeping the Senate in Pro Forma session over the Thanksgiving break, so the Resident can't use recess appointments to put his Loyal-Bushie cronies in positions of power (especially in the Department of Justice) without Senate approval.

About god-damned time that bastard Reid grew a pair. It's his responsibility to keep the fucking Senate in session until the end of the error in January 2009. Fuck Bush. Give him nothing, unless it's a stroke.

Mukasey Not Likely to be Confirmed

Curiouser and curiouser.

The Mukasey nomination has bypassed surreal and moved on to ridiculous.

Probably sucks to be Senator Schumer right now.

The nomination is in real jeopardy. Pat Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that he will not support the nominee. It is starting to look unlikely that the nomination will even make it out of committee.

It's all about the torture. He won't go on record that waterboarding is torture. (Nah, it's just a dunk in the water. No big deal. That's why it's sanctioned in international law...oh...wait...)

Waterboarding is a war crime because it's torture. His refusal to state it doesn't mean it isn't.

Frankly, his equivocating tortures logic.

It isn't like we are stupid. He can't go on record because it has been used, and he would then be obligated, should he be confirmed, to prosecute the perpetrators as the war criminals they are. Hell, that obligation to prosecute could go all the way to the executive, and the pResident himself.

For his part, Bush seems to be getting increasingly unhinged, demanding the Senate apporve his nominee, and at one point insisting that if it wasn't Mukasey, well, he would show us! We just won't have an Attorney General! (Geez...Fourth grade much?) His latest excuse for Mukasey's equivocation is that he [Mukasey] has not been briefed.

Leahy didn't bite. “No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture.”

The L.A. Times reported today on speculation that Bush might use a recess appointment to install Mukasey at Justice over the upcoming holiday break.

Probably so. Wouldn't put it past the sonofabitch for a hot second, but there is an easy way to thwart that possibility, and they damn well know it!

Don't officially call a recess.

A couple of Dems need to stay behind in Washington. Call the Senate to order every day of the scheduled recess, even without a quorum. I realize that this is the same party that was in a big toot to get their vacations started in August, so they caved on FISA, but damnit! Read the freakin' Jefferson's Manual! Mikulski and Webb live in close enough proximity to the Hill to employ the tactic and not even be greatly inconvenienced.

For every parliamentary maneuver, there is a parliamentary check. And if we don't have Democrats who know how this god-damned game is played, then we need some new god-damned Democrats.

An Alternative Path to Impeachment

[Originally posted at Watching Those We Chose]

Now seems like a good time to revisit this issue. There is an obscure rule in the Jefferson's Manual that allows for articles of impeachment to originate outside the United States House of Representatives, and the climate is right for it to be invoked.

Jefferson's Manual, the established rules under which the House operates, allows for any one of the 50 state legislatures, no governor required, to request that impeachment proceedings be commenced against any member of the Executive branch.

In the House there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion: by charges made on the floor on the responsibility of a Member or Delegate; by charges preferred by a memorial, which is usually referred to a committee for examination; by a resolution dropped in the hopper by a Member and referred to a committee; by a message from the President; by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State or territory or from a grand jury; or from facts developed and reported by an investigating committee of the House.

Now here is where it gets interesting.

In the past year state legislatures in four states (Vermont, Minnesota, California and Illinois) introduced, but failed to pass, resolutions to impeach. The Minnesota state senator who introduced the bill is none other than newly elected House member Keith Ellison. He is one of many sitting in the House right now biding time and waiting for the right moment to initiate impeachment. There will be a stampede of eager freshmen representatives from blue districts rushing toward the first Delegation up the Capitol steps with a passed resolution in hand.

New Mexico has been at the forefront of the Purge Scandal. New Mexico also has strong Democratic majorities in both chambers of the state house and an active and agitated electorate ready for oversight and accountability, every last one of them right now with steam coming out of their ears. New Mexico State Senator Gerald Ortiz y Peno is the guy to watch. (When he's the governor and a shining star in the national Democratic Party, remember, you heard it here first.)

Given the climate today, and the scandal of firing David Iglesias, don't be surprised if the New Mexico legislature passes the resolution. Once a resolution to impeach is passed by both chambers of any states legislature, any Representative can respond to the plea by acknowledging the states petition, and then the game is afoot. Once such a plea is acknowledged, Speaker Pelosi will then have no choice in the matter. Per the Jefferson's Manual, impeachment proceedings must start.

New Mexico is not alone in the effort to pass the resolution. New Jersey has a very strong grass-roots movement working to achieve introduction and passage of the resolution. Which state will get there first has been speculated on among political wonks and crystal-ball gazers for a couple of months now.

However, given the events of the last two weeks, New Mexico seems the most likely to emerge from the pack with a ratified resolution.