Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has sent a letter to President Bush’s nominee to replace Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.

The Senator expressed many of the concerns that Fellows of and contributors to The Mighty Corrente Building have written about.

From the Senator’s letter to Mr. Mukasey:

The Attorney General who recently resigned apparently believed that the President has a commander-in-chief override of the laws of this country, which contributed to his violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), his signing statement reservations, and other overreaching. We must explore those topics. For example, do you believe that the President has authority to override legal requirements and immunize acts of torture contrary to our treaty obligations and laws? Do you believe that before Congress amended the FISA this summer, the Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed in the days following September 11, or Article II of the Constitution gave this President authority to override the requirements of that law with respect to wiretapping Americans?

In connection with these matters the Judiciary Committee has been seeking the historical legal analysis of the Department of Justice and this Administration. We have made numerous requests and have even had to subpoena the FISA documents. I want to know whether you will work with us and provide those materials so that we can examine the legal justifications that have been utilized by this Administration to excuse its conduct.

Well done Senator Leahy. Now follow through – please!  Read more 

Great, great little piece in NYT today, which interestingly enough they chose not to hide behind the evil Paywall. The author: Frank Bowman, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Not a big name, not a politician. Very nice writer though, and his logic (as well as politcal savvy) seems quite impeccable.

His topic: Should Congress impeach the Attorney General? That they can is unquestionable:

A cabinet officer, like a judge or a president, may be impeached only for commission of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But as the Nixon and Clinton impeachment debates reminded us, that constitutional phrase embraces not only indictable crimes but “conduct … grossly incompatible with the office held and subversive of that office and of our constitutional system of government.”

Emphasis added, because as we’ve said on possibly a time or two before, this is the heart of the matter.  Read more