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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

“I Was Disgusted.”

posted by on September 5 at 9:54 AM

John “Torture’s Okay” Yoo crony Jack Goldsmith, the former head of Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department, is coming out with a book that trashes the Bush administration’s pseudo legal justifications for running rough shod over the constitution.

From an upcoming NYT preview of the book:

Nine months later, in June 2004, Goldsmith resigned. Although he refused to discuss his resignation at the time, he had led a small group of administration lawyers in a behind-the-scenes revolt against what he considered the constitutional excesses of the legal policies embraced by his White House superiors in the war on terror. During his first weeks on the job, Goldsmith had discovered that the Office of Legal Counsel had written two legal opinions — both drafted by Goldsmith’s friend Yoo, who served as a deputy in the office — about the authority of the executive branch to conduct coercive interrogations. Goldsmith considered these opinions, now known as the “torture memos,” to be tendentious, overly broad and legally flawed, and he fought to change them. He also found himself challenging the White House on a variety of other issues, ranging from surveillance to the trial of suspected terrorists. His efforts succeeded in bringing the Bush administration somewhat closer to what Goldsmith considered the rule of law — although at considerable cost to Goldsmith himself. By the end of his tenure, he was worn out. “I was disgusted with the whole process and fed up and exhausted,” he told me recently.

RSS icon Comments

1

And now he's a law professor at Harvard. Talk about failing your way to the top!

Posted by Original Andrew | September 5, 2007 10:01 AM
2

I wouldn't consider Harvard the 'top'. At least not for the last decade or so. Or Legally Blonde. Pick one.

Posted by Mr. Poe | September 5, 2007 10:03 AM
3

Maybe he shouldn't have betrayed America and our core values of Truth, Justice, and the Middle Class way of life?

Posted by Will in Seattle | September 5, 2007 10:07 AM
4

Shame he didn't beat John Yoo dead. That guy is annoying as fuck.

Posted by monkey | September 5, 2007 10:20 AM

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