Larisa Alexandrovna Sees AG Mukasey as Obstructing Justice: Revisit the DOJ Partisan Prosecutions

[Demeter]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/124


Mukasey is obstructing justice, which is a crime. He can either resign if he feels that his oath of office is too cumbersome for him to adhere to, or he can be removed. Either we are a nation of laws or we are a nation without a democracy.
-- Larisa Alexandrovna, Managing Investigative News Editor, Raw Story

Alexandrovna was born in the Soviet Union and knows a thing or two about people getting framed by the state.

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BuzzFlash:... In Congressional testimony last weekend, our current Attorney General, Mr. Mukasey -- and Senator Joe Biden was quite tenacious when asked why no one will be prosecuted in the partisan hiring scandal in the Justice Department. He basically said these people have been punished enough. Two of them had left, and one of them is in a new job. Biden kept trying to nail him on this issue of the rule of law. What did you think as you were watching that?


Larisa Alexandrovna: I was not surprised by Attorney General Mukasey's take on this whole thing. But I was surprised at the level of his refusal to examine the rest of the political DoJ scandal. It's not just the hiring practices, although as we now know, that activity violated EOE laws and civil rights, to say the least. There is a broader, wider scandal, which itself has sub-scandals. The U.S. attorneys who were not fired, for example, using their positions to be part of political campaigns and timing their prosecutions for elections, as well as cooking evidence and prosecuting people based on politics is entirely illegal and unprecedented in this country. The US Attorney scandal is just one sub-scandal in the larger politicized DoJ scandal.

So there was this whole slew of things. But I was not surprised at his refusal to honor his oath of office. That behavior has become a hallmark of the Bush administration. Where I was surprised was that he was so dismissive and so publicly contemptuous in front of Congress. We can definitely thank Senators Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein for helping put this man into his office, because I don't think that without them, he would have been confirmed.

BuzzFlash: Of course, it has gone way beyond Prosecutorgate. on several fronts he has fallen short, including enforcing subpoenas from Congress.


Larisa Alexandrovna: Yes, that's another thing. From my vantage point he sort of looks like a “cleaner” coming into tidy things up, as the Bush administration is about to leave office. Not enforcing something as basic Congressional subpoenas, that is pretty brazen.


BuzzFlash: He's not very different from Gonzales in terms of protecting the administration.


Larisa Alexandrovna: Unlike Gonzales, Mukasey is incredibly intelligent. Gonzales refused to answer questions as well or just played stupid and MIA when it came to his job. But at least he appeared somewhat respectful of the other branch of government -– Congress -– during his questioning. Mukasey, on the other hand, reminds me of David Addington, Cheney’s Chief of Staff, who appeared before Congress and behaved with total contempt, as though he had better things to do and they were annoying him. Mukasey’s behavior is what fully surprised me.


BuzzFlash: This is not a minor case, but Mukasey dismissed it as though he thought these were minor indiscretions.


Larisa Alexandrovna: Well, if they can all use that kind of excuse, then the American people should be able to use it as well. We are talking about government officials breaking the law, committing perjury, and abusing the power of their office. To say that they have suffered enough or that somehow a bit of good old fashioned embarrassment is enough punishment is astonishing.

Next time any American is indicted for perjury (to name but one of the alleged crimes committed by Monica Goodling, for example) they can all just say, “Hey, we have been embarrassed, so that will be our punishment.”

Mukasey has a choice to make. If he is not comfortable upholding his oath of office, then he should resign. But if he continues to hold this office and continues with these shenanigans, then he is obstructing justice and that is a crime too... He can either resign if he feels that his oath of office is too cumbersome for him to adhere to, or he can be removed. Either we are a nation of laws or we are a nation without a democracy...The other option is to impeach Mukasey for not enforcing the Congressional subpoena. That is obstruction of justice. Congress has the power, actually, the responsibility to investigate and call witnesses. If witnesses don’t show up, then Mukasey must bring the full force of the DoJ on them for thumbing their nose at Congress and the rule of law. But ultimately Congress has to do something, because if they don't, then it really does not matter who wins the next election or the election after that. The damage will be so great that I cannot imagine what it would take to repair our system of government. The damage to the Constitution and to our democracy I mean. Congress can’t just abdicate without declaring that democracy is null and void...