Is Judge Jay Bybee having trouble figuring out his public posture?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Paul Levy" <plevy () citizen org>
Date: April 29, 2009 12:13:54 PM EDT
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Is Judge Jay Bybee having trouble figuring out his public  
posture?

Last week, the friends who had been expressly authorized to speak to  
the press were pushing the line that Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee was  
really very very sorry for the torture memo he authored

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042403888_2.html?sid=ST2009042403231

But this week, his strategy seems to be to say he was right all along:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/us/politics/29bybee.html?_r=1&hpw


I thought the most revealing comment in LAST week's propaganda  
offensive was this one:

"'The whole idea that the Constitution is based on a kind of wariness  
of mankind's tendency to grab power, that is an idea I got from Jay,'  
McAffee said. 'So the whole idea of uninhibited executive power, from  
him, does seem passing strange.'

"Bybee's friends said he never sought the job at the Office of Legal  
Counsel. The reason he went back to Washington, Guynn said, was to  
interview with then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales for a slot  
that would be opening on the 9th Circuit when a judge retired. The  
opening was not yet there, however, so Gonzales asked, 'Would you be  
willing to take a position at the OLC first?' Guynn said.

"Being unable to answer for what followed is 'very frustrating,' said  
Guynn, who spoke to Bybee before agreeing to be interviewed. "

So, he took the job at OLC because he was told that this was what he  
needed to do to be in line for a Ninth Circuit judgeship.  Can we  
infer that, having taken  the job for reasons of judicial ambition, he  
knew what he had to sign in order to keep his place in line?



Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation





-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com