Is Harry Reid supporting Judge Bybee because he's a Mormon?
By John Amato Saturday Apr 25, 2009 8:00amNot many people know that Judge Jay ByBee is a Mormon and an anti-gay supporter. As Patrick Leahy, Russ Feingold, Jerry Nadler, and Jan Schakowsky all spoke out against him, Harry Reid wasn't saying much. Even though Diane Feinstein voted against his confirmation she now either has a no comment or is trying to wrestle control of the investigation.
Russ Feingold voted against his nomination back in 2003:
On more than 20 occasions, Mr. Bybee refused to answer a question, claiming over and over again that as an attorney in the Department of Justice he could not comment on any advice that he gave at any time. This is unfortunately becoming a very familiar refrain of nominees before the Judiciary Committee.
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But the failure to make OLC opinions available to the Judiciary Committee during the consideration of a nominee for a seat on a circuit court is unacceptable... The administration should be able to agree to an acceptable procedure to allow the Judiciary Committee to review Mr. Bybee's OLC opinions. Given the recent history of many OLC opinions being made public, it is hard to believe that there are no opinions authored by Mr. Bybee that could be disclosed without damaging the deliberative process. Indeed, it is very hard to give credence to the idea that OLC's independence would be compromised by the release of some selection of the opinions of interest to members of the Judiciary Committee or the Senate.
After the release of these memos why then is Harry Reid not in line with almost every Democratic Politician?
A serious setback, however: Harry Reid, whose Senate would rule on an impeachment in the House, doesn't seem to like the idea:
"Judge Bybee has a good professional reputation in Nevada," Reid spokesman Jon Summers said in an e-mail. "While the memos that have been released are disturbing to Sen. Reid, at this point in time, he doesn't think we should be making a rush to judgment."
And as Alex Koppelman reports in Salon:
Reid has also resisted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's request to create an independent commission to investigate the interrogation tactics. In a recent statement, Reid said, "I think it would [sic] very unwise from my perspective to start having commissions, boards, tribunals until we find out what the facts are.”
Reid sponsored Bybee's judicial appointment, along with fellow Nevada Senator John Ensign. Ensign has been adamant in his support of Bybee, referring to the calls for the judge's ouster as "outrageous" and saying that "This was not torture. This is the thing we have to get away from, that this is somehow accepted that it was torture. The United States does not engage in torture. This was 'advanced interrogation techniques.'"
My question is of Harry Reid. Are you supporting Judge ByBee because he is a Mormon? I'm not against religion as I've said many times, but if Bybee was involved with any other religion, would Harry Reid have supported him? Will any reporters pose that question to Harry Reid? It just seems odd to me that Reid didn't condemn the memos he's credited with writing much more harshly and is resisting any form of inspection. This is very troubling.
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Reid can also be impeached, you know.
Reid, Pelosi they are all knee deep in the shit too and hopefully be forced out. Besides for the obvious legal reasons, they are just amazingly uninteresting and uninspiring in their current roles.
uninterested and uninspired in ther current roles.
Since we're at it, one wrests control, not wrestles control. OK. I'm moving along.
(Just thinking of the site's image.)
Much of the dem leadership is probably knee deep.. Harry is first obstructionist at bat, the loyal repukables find his statesmanship inspiring..
Mr. Reid .. that's the WHOLE POINT of "having commissions, boards, tribunals" .. to "find out what the facts are."
Duhhh!
he's a repug, sometimes referred to as a Dino.
Reid is a LIEberman. UGGGGGGGGGGG
write the same comment (good thing I scrolled down first).
The disturbing thing is that even when we do get to have commissions, boards, hearings (and possibly tribunals in the future) all these freakin' creeps just take the 5th or lie through their teeth anyway.
It's so obvious you'd have to me a moron not to see it. Or wait, did I spell Mormon incorrectly?
I'm still waiting for a commission of inquiry before I put any faith or money into that crucifixion cult, let alone that latter day wackadoodle add-on.
He should have been booted out long ago. Doesn't matter if he's religiously aligned with a torture-lover. He's no good. There's two ways to frame the torture "debate" - politically or legally. Legally speaking, we KNOW it's illegal. Politically it can br anything anyone wants it to be. The easiest way to answer someone who only wants to frame it politically is: Does that make it legal? Try it next time on your Republican friends.
Then they'll shift to "But it got results!" as Cheney has already done.
What next?
Your move!
With a lot of hedging, the consensus of Washington Week in Review last night was that it did.
But like the politicians in Washington they say we won't know until there's an investigation, but we can't have any investigations because we need bipartisanship, end the war etc.
They never mentioned that the republicans have been voting in block against EVERYTHING Obama puts out.
Along with all of the wannabe dailys in the country. The fact that people are tuning out to the traditional media is because they all take the Villager line on everything and thus appear absolutely clueless on every issue. When they see poll after poll of the America supporting Obama, they write, "Gee, that's unusual and unexpected", and then editorialize about how Obama's honeymoon will be over by next week for sure. Personally, I take my fiction in paperback, not in newsprint.
I prefer Micky Spillane
And J K Rowling.
Then they'll shift to "But it got results!" as Cheney has already done.
Does that make it legal?
The answer is always NO.
He's useless. Worse than useless. An impediment to progress. Feingold for Senate Majority Leader!
equally useless. but to his credit, feingold does make good public statements.
Waxman for Speaker. Screw Pelosi. I don't know who I would nominate for the Senate Majority leader. I think they are all crooks.
GILF?
I was just reading the Al Gore thread, and laughing my ass off because the PUKIES were so SCARED of someone they thought they had totally eliminated, and de-clawed. Reid is a PUKIE, like LIEberman, a traitor, and turn-coat. I think he's scared, too. Drawing in favors to protect his BUTT over Bybee..........who is so transparently a bad capitol investment of his non-existent 'Image', his non-existent POWER, and 'POSITION'. To any RIGHTY, POWER, is all they hallucinate they have and since they have such a tiny personal base, they are threatened. hahaha
POPCORN
I think it's more likely that he's afraid that it'll come out that he supported these techniques and it will ruin his own career. I have no information to this effect, but if we're going after conspiracy theories, this one sounds more plausible to me.
it explains the last twelve years.
Having been a Mormon myself growing up, I would tend to agree, because it fits their eschatology.
How much did the Republicans worry about "bipartisanship" during the Bush Regime? (Answer: they were opposed to it.) Harry Reid's got to learn to stop his codependent behavior and start standing up to his abusers (ie the Republican minority).
That said, I like Obama's model: make a highly public effort early on for bipartisan support, let the Republicans play partisan games - and THEN start getting tough.
We need to keep the pressure on - if Bybee is impeached, it must be seen as non-political despite the Republican's best efforts to call it partisan payback and worse than the politicization of the justice Department. We need to keep this as a public scandal as long as possible to prevent the spinmeisters responsible for repackaging Nixon as a "senior statesman" from striking again.
Just proves he's a delusional PUKIE in drag, just like LIEberman. His 'career' is OVER!, already, and now maybe we can drive a wooden stake where most humans have a heart.
he has submarined his party for at least 8 years. LIEberman and Reid are of the same cloth. It's disgusting. I'm disgusted. Here we have another thread where there are more questions about Reid. When you wait long enough, he once again proves to be as (D)emocratic as any (R)epublican. not once did he force the repuglyKKKans to actually use the filibuster and now that there is a clear majority of Democrats, he honors any repug threat to filibuster as if it were actually taking place.
Reid needs to go.
Lieberman to Reid: "Will $250 Thousand Be Enough?"
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUC3s6OQggM ]
Reid's proved himself to be unprincipled and unscrupulous, so comradeship of faith seems competely beyond him. Reid's a tool. Look for a more worldly ulterior motive, like money or political horsetrading. Or maybe he's been bribed. Nothing is beyond him or Pelosi (or Feinstein, or Schumer, etc.). That Reid is Senate majority leader tells me everything I need to know about how deep the corruption of the Dem party lies.
are selling us down the tubes as much as the repuKKKes did.
threatened to cut off support for Reid.
If reid can betray the Democratic party, he can betray his faith and friends as well.
I think your article might've said it all, that reid sponsored bybee's judgeship. Everyone hates blowback.
Reid is not supporting Bybee because of their shared Mormon religion, but rather because Bybee is of the Republican persuasion.
If anything the shared religion allows Reid an excuse for his betrayal of the Dem interests in this case (as it is his normal MO).
... a mumbling, dissembling Mr. Peepers, is no better than that sick Republican Ensign. I'm so sorry, Nevada.
Don't you just love that twisted euphemism? "Enhanced interrogation techniques"? So that's what Repugs call drowning another person.
Time for Harry to go.
EUPHEMISMS, if I never hear another one from then..........I'd be dead.
He is a weak, inneffective, corrupt, lying weasel who thinks he has to act as Republican as possible to get re-elected. Harry Reid is the biggest obstacle in enacting Obama's agenda. There is a reason that among Congressional majority leaders, he is by far the least liked and most reviled.
As for the torture, I'm just waiting for Cheney to bail the country. Maybe a nice home on a palm shaped island in Dubai....
That Reid is a spineless, uninspiring etc.... but you said it better. And let's not forget Dubyas 150 thousand acre ranch in Paraguay..enough room for all of his co-conspiritors to escape...I mean retire to, when the s#it really hits the fan.
Isn't it INTERESTING that "W's" grandfather did business with the NAZIs... then his father was a CIA SPOOK and in CAHOOTS with the BinLaden family... then W ran his own administration like a Hitler camp for BrownShirts... and THEN he bought an ESCAPE RETREAT in South America... just like all those SS officers did after the Allied forces moved onto German ground?
MY WIFE'S GRANDFATHER was a German civil engineer who built roads for the big banana companies in Honduras during the war. He and his family was "relocated" to an interrment camp in Texas... then to Chicago. He disappeared in 1952... with all his money... and his family eventually found his car ABANDONED IN EL PASO! Those guys all knew the same tricks.
hmmm... he even speaks a little Spanish, doesn't he?
"I think it would [sic] very unwise from my perspective to start having commissions, boards, tribunals until we find out what the facts are."
Isn't finding out what the facts are the point of having commissions, boards, and tribunals?
reality has to smack you along side the head before it becomes fact. Oh shit, that might be torture and we don't torture.
.
when does the march on D.C. begin?
Next Friday would be good.
I've got to travel Sunday - Tuesday. And finish cleaning my deck.
I can be ready by Friday.
I think the title should read like this. I grow so tired of Senator Reid. This guy so lame he is the worst leader I have ever seen.
Is Harry Reid supporting Judge Bybee because he's a Moron?
Trouble is your last statement could be taken as an offense to both LDS'rs and the mentally retarded.
Except I'm sure the label mentally retarded can be taken as an offense now, and there's probably some PC label I'm not aware of at the moment.
I thought you guys were talking about LSD (scratched my head) and thought, I am not offended (even though that was a long time ago).
fucking sick of Harry Reid. How the hell did that corrupt, spineless douchebag end up in control of the Senate?
They aren't going to be able to avoid this subject much longer. If there are no investigations forthcoming by July, I'll march with you.
I hoped when we voted for "change" we would replace that spineless wimp gutless traitor embarrassment of a leader. He personifies all that was wrong with the weakass Dems for the past 8 years. He will hurt Obama until he is dumped. Just what good does he do???
Should also resign.
Of course he's protecting his fellow mormon. And he's an asshat. Nothing new here.
*
Harry Reid, like almost all politicians, is not motivated by ideals or loyalty to vague things like religious affiliation. He's a professional party member, and that's all.
He supports the political establishment (and I mean members of both parties) because he is part of the establishment. He's got a comfortable little chair in a cushy little corner where he can rake in a lot of money for doing very little, and wield some influence. These guys support each other because they've all got the same primary concern: maintaining the status quo.
He'll act when inaction becomes more adverse to his personal interests, and not a second sooner.
Maybe reid and bybee can join hands and groove to the Mormon Teabagging Choir.
Cummon, really? lets not throw religion under the bus like this. Honestly, we need to find something better to talk about. this is just silliness.
by all means let's not dwell in the merits of a bunch of people who believe in magic underpants and planetary supremacy after death... brought to them in the form of gold tablets, which were conveniently misplaced. You would assume these moron... I mean mormons would have kept these tables safe and sound... being the most important piece of evidence for the existence of their messenger angel MORONi.
Yeah, let's not dwell into the merits of such stupid crap, lest it diminish its clout. Right?
I love the way the LDS crowd acts as they're somehow above critique....(or any other faith for that matter).
50 year old mormon males fucking underage girls on a Texas compound....A-OK! gay guys getting married in California...definitely not OK.
separate from that did anyone read the Mother Jones article about Reid's shady mine dealings?
Like stated by others Reid exists to keep the status quo in control.
"50 year old mormon males
fuckingraping underage girls on a Texas compound....A-OK! gay guys getting married in California...definitely not OK."Fixed it for ya. I think that using the f word to describe what the FLDS has been doing to little girls is insufficent and doesn't adequately cover the horror of it. So I prefer to use the actual term to make my point.
But, that said, I agree with the spirit of what you're saying.
And people ask me why I don't believe in organized religion.
Harry Reid is a cancer on the leadership of the Party. He caves on every vital issue and never steps forward to undertake a leadership voice. He slithers out only when forced too make a statement and it is ALWAYS a weak retort.
For too long and on way too many issues, this so called leader has capitulated to the GOP and overall made decisions contrary Democrat's party line. His loyalties are not firmly founded in attaining good for the American people or the Democratic Party. His special interest alliances have made him unexceptable to be a party leader.
Um, yeah. Probably.
...but that's where I'd bet MY money.
of why we need Congressional term limits.
;-)
I don't think term limits are a good Idea but we need people to get active and primary the shit out of them until they see if they don't come to the base of the party the wont have a seat.
but I've been thinking for some time now that both Reid and Pelosi are wolves in sheeps' clothing. That is, they are right of center. maybe a good bit right of center. Either that or they're just chickenshit, take your pick.
... that a socialite from San Francisco, and a conservative mormon from Nevada... would not have had in their minds the interests of the common people, never mind liberals... i
If anything, I gotta hand it to both of these assholes. They have managed to not only support and enable EVERY piece of GOP. While at the same time maintaining appearances good enough to make the common GOPer foam in the mouth despising them (and by proxy the Dems, ensuring a stable voting base for the GOP). While at the same time, enrage enough Dems with their leadership... as to seriously jeopardize the future of the Dem majorities in the house in the next election cycle. They seem to be the gift that keeps on giving for the GOP, and it doesn't look it is a coincidence.
Cancerous growth doesn't even begin to capture the magnitude of the MO of both Pelosi and Reid.
It looks like the democrats have the same contagion that the GOP has -- placing personal and party interests ahead of national interests.
I don't know what it's going to take before we can actually get a representative govt that represents the public's interest rather that corporate, religious special interest, and/or a congress critter's personal interests.
The sad part is that the GOP still hasn't gotten its act together (if anything, they've gotten worse) and the democrats are not much better it seems. That doesn't leave us with a lot of options. The only thing we can do it nominate new faces in the 2010 primaries.
Congress already. He's a disgrace.
I've always felt that Reid and Joe Liberman were pig-turd-twins...they certainly seem to share the same DNA (Doing Nothing Again)
I think Nevada is still, as always, a mob town.
And the mob has gone legit, moving into the halls of government, thanks to the willing support of J. Edgar Hoover.
As such, Harry Reid is their man in Congress. He is there to cover up their schemes. And Bybee is their man on the bench.
The MOB needs to be busted and thrown out of government.
I wonder who the new godfather will be after old man Bush passes?
Since when did Reid need an excuse to be a wimp?
I realize that it's naive, but I was surprised to learn that one of the key men behind these "torture" memos was also a Mormon. No cursing, no smoking, no boozing, no caffeine - I just assumed that justifying the torture of prisoners would be considered a no-no too...but I guess it never made the list.
Earlier this week, two Mormons came to my door (I live in California) collecting food to donate to the local food banks. It's a great cause; food banks have really been hit hard in this economic downturn and can use all the help they can get. After they picked up my donation, it got me thinking - I wonder how much food could've been bought with the estimated $18,000,000 that was donated by the LDS church and it's members to keep a segment of the population from getting married.
I try not to be anti-religious, but I sure have a hard time understanding their priorities sometimes.
Yes, Bybee is a Mormon (look at where he went to college for the first clue).
What is the Mormon point of view on torture? Alyssa Peterson, an Arabic interpreter and interrogator killed herself after 2 days. She was smart, sweet, cheerful, devout. And dead.
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2006/11/us-s...
So, how do Reid and Bybee feel about this? Reid was briefed, but did not speak up. Bybee wrote memos encouraging and legitimating torture while waiting for his judgeship to open. Alyssa took her own life rather than be part of the program.
The Army tried to cover it up, of course. But surely someone should be angered at the waste of resources if not ashamed that our country has come to this.
Those politicians can strut around with their flag pins, but Alyssa was the true patriot. A soldier does not obey an illegal order.
is as useless as "tits on a teddy bear"!
this line of assumption strikes me as pretty offensive. I think the LDS church and their faith are as nutty as most do and I find their activism appalling, but trying to pin religious affiliation as a reason for someone acting spineless or shady when there's no evidence that their shared faith has anything to do with this is wrong. It comes off as unbelievably bigoted (what if they were both Jewish? Muslim? Black? Latino? would we try to make the same connections?), especially when Harry Reid's history shows that taking a principled stand, rather than one that pisses people off, is something of a rarity. I feel fairly confident in saying that if Bybee were a Methodist, a Catholic or a Jew I'd still be writing angry emails to Reid for standing in the way of justice. He seldom fails to do the wrong thing.
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