Ensuring orthodoxy among the "netroots": the Townhouse email list in action...

Ensuring orthodoxy among the "netroots": the Townhouse email list in action... (+)
by: StupidAsshole
Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 19:28:19 PM PDT
I saw this post by D. Throat on Mariscat's blog, and received his/her permission to repost it here. It gives a great snapshot of Democratic Party messaging being distributed down into the "netroots," so that it's repeated on multiple mainstream "liberal" blogs. One can only assume that an email encouraging the Big White Boys of Blogging to tamp down any dissent among the little people about Bush's new attorney general nominee was sent out over the famous Townhouse email list.

Gee… ya think an email on the "Condo Mailing List" went out:

DocuDrahma:

Some thoughts on the new AG nominee, Michael Mukasey
by: A. Chandler Moisen
Sun Sep 16, 2007 at 23:14:07 PM PDT

(Topical enough for the afternoon? Hello, Fall. Sorry I'm late with this, crew… (FP'ed at 12:50 pm, PDT, September 17, 2007) - promoted by exmearden)

First, I'll confess a minor bias in favor of federal judges. I've clerked for federal judges, and I've had personal interactions with quite a few of them. By no means are they all perfect, but compared to the politicians from the other two branches of government, I think they deserve a much higher degree of regard.

That said, I think liberals could do much, much worse than Michael Mukasey as AG. He's not an idiot like Gonzo, and he's not a partisan hack like Ted Olson or Lawrence Silberman.

Daily Slop:

Why we shouldn't b**ch if the Democrats confirm Mukasey
by taylormattd
Sun Sep 16, 2007 at 04:16:17 PM PDT
StupidAsshole :: Ensuring orthodoxy among the "netroots": the Townhouse email list in action...
Boring Left:

Don't Expect A Big Fight Over Mukasey's Confirmation
by: Chris Bowers
Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 12:04:43 PM EDT

…

So, basically, Mukasey is a right-winger, but everyone they nominate will be a right-winger, and at least Mukcasey stuck it to the Bush administration by upholding legal standard in the Padilla case. This will result in mixed messaging coming from both the left and the right, and as such no negative conventional wisdom will be formed around Mukcasey.

Unless there is some sort of smoking gun or major skeleton found in Mukcasey's closet, it looks like his nomination will be a done deal. These battles are frequently won and lost in the first twenty-four hours, and right now it looks like he is winning handily.

"Glenn"

There is no question that Judge Mukasey, a Reagan appointee who served as the Chief Judge for the Southern District of New York before retiring recently, is close to the far right on the judicial spectrum. He undoubtedly holds many legal and political views which most Democrats would find objectionable, perhaps even intolerable. But that will be true of any nominee Bush selects, and it is true of the current Acting Attorney General, Paul Clement, who will remain in place if no nominee is confirmed.

I want to highlight one extremely relevant consideration concerning Judge Mukasey - the impressive role he played in presiding over the Jose Padilla case in its earliest stages. After Padilla was first detained in April 2002 and declared an "enemy combatant," he was held incommunicado, denied all access to the outside the world, including counsel, and the Bush administration refused to charge him with any crimes.

"Ezra"

Mukasey In The Hall Of Mirrors

By Neil the Ethical Werewolf

The early word is that Bush will nominate Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. You can read Jeralyn Merritt's post on his history of rulings, Steve Benen's post on how he's regarded by groups on the left and right, or look at his Wikipedia page. Unfortunately, much of the information out there now is of the strange hall-of-mirrors form where you want to like him because right-wing bloggers are disappointed with him because Chuck Schumer and Nan Aron like him.

Putting everything together, he looks like a staunch conservative, but one who will be independent enough to not let Bush get away with Gonzales-era politicization of the judicial system.

"Jeralyn"

Michael Mukasey May Be Named AG Monday
By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Sun Sep 16, 2007 at 09:23:00 AM EST
Tags: Mukasey (all tags)

Bump and Update: President Bush may announce Mukasey as Attorney General on Monday. Glenn Greenwald has a lot more analysis, particularly on his role in the Padilla case.

"The Carpetbagger"

Oddly enough, Mukasey's principal problem, should he be the nominee, is that he may draw fire from the right, not the left.

For one thing, conservatives wanted Olson, not just because of his record as a conservative ideologue, but also because the right relished a high-profile fight with Senate Democrats over the Attorney General vacancy. Conservatives don't care about "confirmable"; they care about partisan warfare.

But more importantly, the right doesn't perceive Mukasey as "one of them."

"Conservatives might have some serious concerns with Mukasey," said one Republican close to the White House. "He's not well known in the community."

Even worse, the progressive legal community doesn't seem to hate him too much. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been encouraging White House counsel Fred Fielding for a Mukasey nomination, and the Alliance for Justice, a liberal legal group, suggested in 2005 that Mukasey would be a conservative-but-fair Supreme Court nominee.

These are not exactly the kind of accolades conservatives want to hear.

Yglesias:

This is already dull conventional wisdom, but it seems to me that the rumored new guy at the Justice Department, Michael Mukasey, stands a good chance of rescuing the DOJ from its Gonzalez-era status as a cesspool of depravity and incompetence and bringing us back to the glory days of John Ashcroft when one primarily worried about the Attorney-General's ludicrously wrongheaded ideology.

Okay… I think you get the picture… there will be no dissent.