Adventures of the Coconut Caucus

Ah to be the new face of justice in Washington and have to deal with the mess left behind by some organization’s brown honoree…

Turns out there’s a white people’s Bolivarian revolution and they may not confirm the newbie Mike Mocoso Mukasey (but let’s face it, they probably will).

Bush, Defending Justice Nominee, Sees Unfairness

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 — The White House began a campaign Thursday to save the candidacy of Michael B. Mukasey for attorney general, with President Bush defending him in a speech and in an Oval Office interview, where he complained that Mr. Mukasey was “not being treated fairly” on Capitol Hill.

With Mr. Mukasey’s confirmation in doubt over his refusal to state a clear legal position on a classified Central Intelligence Agency program to interrogate terrorism suspects, Mr. Bush took the unusual step of summoning a small group of reporters into the Oval Office to preview remarks he planned to make later in the day at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization here.

“I believe that the questions he’s been asked are unfair,” Mr. Bush said. “He’s not been read into the program — he has been asked to give opinions of a program or techniques of a program on which he’s not been briefed. I will make the case — and I strongly believe this is true — that Judge Mukasey is not being treated fairly.”

The president’s remarks and a separate address on Thursday by Vice President Dick Cheney demonstrate just how much the White House has been caught off guard by the fight over Mr. Mukasey, a retired federal judge whose confirmation until recently seemed like a sure thing and had been championed by a leading Democratic senator, Charles E. Schumer of New York.

But the effort also suggests that the White House believes it can combat criticism of Mr. Mukasey and his views by appealing to public concern about terrorism.

With leading Democrats like Mr. Schumer giving Mr. Mukasey positive reviews at the outset the White House hoped to use the Mukasey nomination to mend the bitter partisan feelings left by the resignation of Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general. Now Mr. Schumer says he is undecided, the top Democratic presidential candidates say they will oppose the nomination, and any hope of bipartisan support has been all but erased.

Waaah waaah it’s so unfair that there may be talk about not 100% approving a guy who refuses to say that he won’t torture! Where’s Gonzalito when we need him?