A Pliable Duty Statement

by Steve Soto

So now Chuck Schumer is disappointed in AG Michael Mukasey, but doesn't have the guts to go public with it. Pat Leahy mouths weak-assed concerns, Arlene Specter does also. And DiFi says nothing, because she's as dirty as the worst of the Buch cabal and has been compromised into doing whatever the administration wants her to do.

The fundamental problem here stems from how each side sees the role of the AG, something the hapless Schumer and Leahy still don't get.

To Democrats, the AG is supposed to be the chief law enforcement officer in the land, plain and simple. But to Republicans, what drives the AG's duty statement is the party affiliation of the chief executive. If the president is a Democrat, then Republicans agree that the AG is supposed to be pure, as evidenced by what they demanded of Janet Reno. But if the president is a Republican, then the AG is supposed to protect the president, as evidenced by the pathetic comments of the former Reagan and Bush official cited in the story.

For years now, all Leahy and Schumer needed to do was throw the Senate GOP's attacks against Janet Reno's alleged lack of independence back into their faces, and demand to know what's different now. But that would require guts and brains, and since Schumer and Leahy are part of the same vile Beltway party as the GOP, it's a moot point.