John Dean: "War crimes are as ugly as it gets"

"I wouldn't join the International Criminal Court. It's a body based in The Hague where unaccountable judges and prosecutors can pull our troops or diplomats up for trial.

"And I wouldn't join it. And I understand that in certain capitals around the world that that wasn't a popular move. But it's the right move not to join a foreign court that could -- where our people could be prosecuted." - George W. Bush 09/30/04

John Dean takes a look at the scandal around torture in the gulag:  Jim Haynes As a Stalking Horse In Torturegate: Why President Bush Renominated Him for A Federal Appellate Judgeship by John Dean Findlaw.com 12/31/04

His article provides backgroun on Jim Haynes, now general counsel for Rumsfeld's Defense Department, who Bush has nominated for the US Court of Appeals.  Last May, the Democrats successfully blocked his confirmation.  Now Bush has nominated him again, along with several other questionable choices.

Haynes, says Dean, was not an impressive nominee the first time around.  But now we know he was heavily implicated in providing legal justifications for torture in the gulag.  Dean speculates that by demanding the Senate confirm Haynes, along with the nomination of Alberto "the torture guy" Gonzales, Bush is essentially daring the Democrats to make an issue of the torture scandal.  It's a disgrace to the country that both parties in both houses of Congress haven't raised a major stink over it already.

The torture scandal goes far beyond Judge Haynes, of course:

It's also about the former assistant attorney general, of the Office of Legal Counsel, Jay Bybee - now on the federal bench. Bybee stonewalled his way through his confirmation hearings. But now that the memos are out, there is a good case for Bybee's impeachment: He counseled the President to ignore the law.

More to the point, it is also about Alberto Gonzales -- heading for confirmation hearings for his Attorney General nomination. Perhaps Bush hopes that if Torturegate plays itself out in these nominations, it will end the scandal before it gets worse. After all, why bore viewers with the "same" issues they've already seen exhaustively debated?

Haynes, then, may prove to be a stalking horse, a clay pigeon, or a fall guy - choose your metaphor - for Torturegate. Of course, Haynes is entirely blameworthy too. Depending on which nomination proceeds first - Gonzales's or Haynes's - either nominee could cost the other his job (as well as costing himself his own). And this stalking horse business is risky. ...

But Bush, like Nixon, is a gambler. If his strategy succeeds, he can control the scandal over his use of torture in the war on terror. If it fails, war crimes are as ugly as it gets. [my emphasis]

Even if the Democrats foolishly refuse to make the torture scandal the central issue in the nominations of Gonzales and Haynes, this one isn't going away.  Because, as Dean says,"war crimes are as ugly as it gets."