NYT Sotomayor editorial chock full of legal idiots

Dear Gail Collins: Who within the New York Times op-ed staff had the dim-bulb idea of including Michael Chertoff and Alberto Gonzales in a mock questionnaire for Sonia Sotomayor?

Rather than this being a sign of Holder’s independence, you have to wonder if this was discussed in detail with the Obama White House.

Chertoff plays media for suckers

ABC is a good example. It devotes a two-webpage story to the potential for increased terror activity this summer, with so many “high-profile events,” and has this comment buried in the middle of the first page:

The Department of Homeland Security is quietly [my emphasis] declaring a Period of Heightened Alert, or POHA, a time frame when terrorists may have more incentive to attack.

So, it’s “quietly” when ABC writes a two-page story? And, that’s not the worst:

At the moment, the nation's public threat level will remain at yellow, or “elevated,” but not orange, or “high.”

The reasons: There are no specifics indicating an attack on the U.S. is imminent, and U.S. officials do not want to be accused of trying to inject themselves into the presidential campaign.

No, they’re not going to “inject” themselves into the campaign.

They’ll just “quietly insert” themselves.

BushCo hates bloggers in the name of national security

The Bush Administration strenuously opposes Sen. Arlen Specter’s media shield law. Why?

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the bill would erect roadblocks to gathering information “from anyone who can claim to be a journalist, including bloggers.”

The legislation gives an overly broad definition of journalists that “can include those linked to terrorists and criminals,” wrote Attorney General Michael Mukasey and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the nation would be more vulnerable to “adversaries’ counterintelligence efforts to recruit” those shielded by the bill.

Bullshit, bullshit, and bullshit.

We know the real reason they’re saying this is the same reason Mukasey took top blog Talking Points Memo off the AG’s daily e-mail news summary mailing.

They hate bloggers.

Why?

TPM got former AG Alberto Gonzales canned over partisan firings of district attorneys.

Bloggers got House Democrats to stiffen up and pass a FISA bill without telco immunity.

Bloggers took Bush, Uncle Fester Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld et al to task on Iraq long before the mainstream media had a clue.

George W. Bush, for the remaining nine and a half months of his term (not starring Mickey Rourke as Bush) wants to spy on bloggers.

It’s that simple.