Judiciary Committee approves Mukasey

Democratic leaders in Congress have dismayed many anti-Iraq war voters by not cutting off funding for the war; by giving short-term approval to the National Security Agency’s surveillance of calls entering and leaving the United States; and, now, by paving the way for Mukasey’s confirmation.

There was additional frustration among Democratic allies when Feinstein supplied the crucial Judiciary Committee vote three weeks ago to allow Bush appeals court nominee Leslie Southwick to win confirmation.

“We are deeply disappointed in the Senate Democrats who acquiesced to the President today on Southwick’s nomination. That’s not what Americans voted for when they gave Democrats a majority in the Senate,” said People for the American Way Legal Director Judith E. Schaeffer.

Bush's recess appointment power
On Sunday, Feinstein appeared on CNN’s Late Edition and praised Mukasey as “a bright, independent figure, well-steeped in national security law.”

And she made the pragmatic point that had the Judiciary Committee scuttled Mukasey’s nomination, Bush could have waited for the Senate to recess and then given him a recess appointment.

Feinstein suggested that when the Judiciary Committee takes up legislation this week to provide rules for the NSA surveillance it add an anti-waterboarding amendment to it.

That NSA legislation is, in fact, the next big test for Democrats to try to burnish their appeal to anti-administration forces.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has OK’d a bill to grant immunity to the telecommunications companies who cooperated in the NSA surveillance program. The ACLU vehemently opposes granting the firms immunity.

This week the Judiciary Committee takes up that bill.

The ACLU is representing several plaintiffs who claim that their  rights were violated by the NSA surveillance program.

ACLU lobbyist sees telecoms' power
Caroline Fredrickson, the director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, said in a briefing for reporters Monday, “It is so troubling that Congress would consider providing immunity, intervening in these court cases and dismissing them without having the opportunity for the cases to be heard by a court.”

Fredrickson added wryly, “As someone who lobbies on the Hill regularly, we’re always rubbing up against the phalanxes of telecom lobbyists who are up there. I think members of Congress are feeling a great deal of pity for the sad circumstances that telecoms might find themselves in.”

Members of Congress she said, “are hearing from them on a regular basis as they attend their fundraisers. So we understand why there’s so much resonance for those arguments.”

When the Intelligence Committee OK’d the NSA bill, Feinstein and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D- R.I., voted for it, with the telecoms' legal immunity included. The two Democrats will be the focus of ACLU lobbying this week since they also serve on the Judiciary Committee.

“We were dismayed” by the Intelligence Committee action, Fredrickson said, “I wouldn’t say we were entirely surprised.”

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