This exchange today between Republican Sen. Specter and Attorney General Mukasey may not at first glance seem to settle much, but watch the body language of Mukasey and you'll realize there's something significant happening here. Specter explicitly states that Bush broke the law when he ignored the FISA statues, and Mukasey in response cannot deny it. He never explicitly admits anything, but it painfully clear that he knows he cannot deny it either. Watch:
I know its been quite some time since I blogged about all this, and to tell you the truth, its most because I'm just exhausted by it. The fact that the president knowingly and willingly broke the law became undeniably clear months ago, and I'm just not sure there's much more I have to say about it at this point. I don't care that he thought he was doing what was best for all of us. It was illegal, and he should suffer the consequences. That's a principle I would hold to no matter who was in the White House.
UPDATE: Another clarifying exchange:
"Shocks the conscious" is "essentially a balancing test." Wow. Good to know that the Bush Administration has fully embraced the idea of moral relativism.
So cruelty is acceptable if the benefits to society are great enough. Torture is acceptable if the information gathered is important enough. But all of this, of course, must be done in secret, so we must simply trust that those in power are weighting and balancing things appropriately. Big Brother knows what's best; surely that is obvious to everyone, isn't it?
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