Friday, June 27, 2008

(it's political) Yoo & Addington play their games




John Yoo & David Addington testify (i.e. dissemble) in front of John Conyers' Judiciary Committee



Here you see the Jekyll and Hyde of the Bush Administration's Justice Department.

John Yoo is the ultimate 'yes-man' who could crank out papers supporting whatever policy was put in front of him. Here we see him for the intellectual lightweight toady that he is. Unable to give an unqualified answers, backing the long way around into word games, all the time slowing down the proceedings.

Addington is a bully, who is a kind of (evil) genius. He is Cheney's lawyer, and he build the large legal justifications that he then gets the Yoo's of the world to execute on the brick & mortar level of position papers. His demeanor and MO is to stand toe-to-toe and bluster and debate, showing no shame or pause in rationalizing his pauses work. This is the modern Machiavellian attorney of the powerful and rich (who want to stay as rich as possible at all costs).

This encounter is really pretty comical, but of course none of this is really funny.

The Cheney's Law episode of PBS' Frontline gives the best coverage of this dynamic, and how these two enabled the worst tortures and travesties of this Iraq War. Don't seem to be able to embed the video on this page, but you can watch here.

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