"Cuomey"
I'm sorry. The Mad King, Idiot son of George, would never get the entendre. He is famous for nicknames like "Turd Blossom", "Skunky Butt", "Jeffy the Wad Monster" and the like. To think someone with a gentlemans C in every class he ever took could get the subtlety of the nickname is just plain wrong.
That this is a story of the poor beleaguered civil servant fighting for our rights and to avoid torture is just too damn sweet. They had many options at their disposal to call attention to their thinking. They chose not to do that. Ergo, they are part of the problem...a republi-con part of the problem. On a similar note: Asscroft is not pitiable. He was the worst AG we ever had, followed by Abu, the most incompetent. Fitting, eh?
Posted by phidipides at May 20, 2007 08:58 PMNewsweek is reading too much into the nickname. Bush knows Comey is from NY and that he doesn't like him. That's the extent of the nickname.
I was thinking of possible replacements of Alberto Gonzales who A) have a chance of being picked and B) have a chance of being confirmed and C) will take the job and it's a really short list.
Lieberman - former CT AG, CT has GOP Gov. to name replacment
Graham - JAG lawyer, SC has GOP Gov. to name replacement
William Barr - AG under GHWB
And who else? No GOP lawyer that wants a future is going to get on the rat ship that is the DoJ now. Graham would probably be crazy to take the job. Lieberman could take the job and try to stay on in the next administration. Barr is a retread retainer of Bush's father and could bail his ass out just like the new SecDef.
But it ain't gonna be Comey. Patrick Fitzgerald has about as much of a chance to be AG as Comey under GWB.
Posted by joejoejoe at May 21, 2007 12:34 AMI think the Bush Administration --and Rovebush in particular-- believe in loyalty tests before loyalty oaths. I think Comey was a product of this filter process and ultimately he failed because he revealed he was first a straighter arrow as a loyal Republican than he was he was Rovebush loyalist. My son and I are re-reading Eragon for a bedtime story, and we have everyone warning the lad "The time will come when you must choose--and there will be no middle ground." We'll that is what you see when you look at the 6 yrs of Bush. First, they flood the zone with Republicans and then they try to make them choose between the Republicanism they signed on for and the Republicanism Rovebush if engineering. Some don't make the cut. There is no middle ground. They become at best 3rd String Republicans if someone has a merciful moment in their deliberations or sees some hope of Rovebush Redemption---otherwise, they are as good as Communists and must be humiliated.
Posted by gtash at May 21, 2007 05:19 AMthis is the sickest part of the "embroglio" we have working as a government. attorneys that engage in criminal behavior are somehow good guys when they turn on their handlers.
I wonder if there is a single USA from the first set or the second set that could stand on their own? I doubt it. How could they when the government they work for is just a criminal enterprise?
Posted by oldtree at May 21, 2007 06:06 AMFrom the Newsweek article:
"These Justice Department lawyers, backed by their intrepid boss Comey, had stood up to the hard-liners, centered in the office of the vice president, who wanted to give the president virtually unlimited powers in the war on terror. Demanding that the White House stop using what they saw as farfetched rationales for riding rough-shod over the law and the Constitution, Goldsmith and the others fought to bring government spying and interrogation methods within the law. They did so at their peril; ostracized, some were denied promotions, while others left for more comfortable climes in private law firms and academia. Some went so far as to line up private lawyers in 2004, anticipating that the president's eavesdropping program would draw scrutiny from Congress, if not prosecutors."
OMG, what an indictment of Congress that this act did not draw the expected scrutiny. Fucking accomplices.
Posted by Julie at May 21, 2007 06:12 AM