murskansky or however u spell it--the new atty general

[sevencard2003]

am curious to know how this guys appt bodes for online poker. any ideas??

[Legislurker]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070917/D8RN04OO0.html

He is a Giuliana guy, a law and order guy, and a terrorist judge according to that peice. Thats 3 strikes I think.

[Wynton]

Mukasey had a very solid reputation as a federal judge. The fact that he presided over terrorism trials says nothing about his political views whatsoever. All it shows is that he was able to handle high-profile cases, which often presented novel issues.

[Legislurker]

Im starting to wonder with what Ive read so far whether or not this is a tacit endorsement of Rudy as the anointed successor. This is one of his close buds. Sort of the old school I'm richer and better educated than you so fear my [censored] wrath soulmates.

[fnurt]

I never appeared before Judge Mukasey, but many of my colleagues did, here in NYC. He has an outstanding reputation.

He is a Reagan-era conservative and I doubt he has much interest in appeasing the FoF types.

He is also a genuine expert in terrorism issues - having presided over some of the most high-profile terrorism prosecutions in history - and I suspect he will be devoting his attention to REAL priorities for our nation, as opposed to crap like porn and online gambling.

Maybe there's something more specific in his background, but I see every reason to be optimistic about this pick, especially relative to other nominations we could have seen from the present administration.

[Legislurker]

Maybe Im not a lawyer, but shouldn't fighting the "war on terror" be done by Homeland Security and DoD? Id think the DoJ is around to deal with crap like porn and gambling and corruption and international crime? Sure, there may be some terror elements, but it should be a small part of what DoJ does.

[oldbookguy]

I think as we see what the dems have to say will help our insight and how (and we know he will) Kyl frames the UIGEA questions to him and how he answers.

That, I think, is really all that will matter to Kyl; how much effort, time and resources he is will to devote to Internet Gaming.

obg

[JPFisher55]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe Im not a lawyer, but shouldn't fighting the "war on terror" be done by Homeland Security and DoD? Id think the DoJ is around to deal with crap like porn and gambling and corruption and international crime? Sure, there may be some terror elements, but it should be a small part of what DoJ does.

[/ QUOTE ]

But that's not the American way. Now we go to court and litigate. Seriously, you're right.

[fnurt]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe Im not a lawyer, but shouldn't fighting the "war on terror" be done by Homeland Security and DoD? Id think the DoJ is around to deal with crap like porn and gambling and corruption and international crime? Sure, there may be some terror elements, but it should be a small part of what DoJ does.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the Pentagon should pretty much be in charge of invading countries and the DoJ should pretty much be in charge of deciding what to do with people we arrest.

Most of what we do in the "war on terror" is intelligence and police work. These things need to happen within some sort of legal framework.

Yeah, Gonzales pretty much left all the complicated legal crap for other people to worry about, but he's not really my model for an Attorney General.

It's a side point anyway. I really don't see this guy, a well-respected retired judge with a generous pension, accepting the position of Attorney General with a year left in Bush's term just so he can shut down some porn shops. I can't see online gambling being high on his list of priorities.

[Skallagrim]

"It's a side point anyway. I really don't see this guy, a well-respected retired judge with a generous pension, accepting the position of Attorney General with a year left in Bush's term just so he can shut down some porn shops. I can't see online gambling being high on his list of priorities."

I pretty much agree with this. There is just so much to do to turn the DO"Just Us" back into a DOJustice, that online gambling will not be a priority.

But thats not to say it wont get some attention; certainly the regs will finally get written. Though with some luck an old time conservative like this one may be inclined to order simple regs that look good but in reality accomplish little and keep the banks happy. We can hope anyway.

Skallagrim

[JPFisher55]

[ QUOTE ]
"It's a side point anyway. I really don't see this guy, a well-respected retired judge with a generous pension, accepting the position of Attorney General with a year left in Bush's term just so he can shut down some porn shops. I can't see online gambling being high on his list of priorities."

I pretty much agree with this. There is just so much to do to turn the DO"Just Us" back into a DOJustice, that online gambling will not be a priority.

But thats not to say it wont get some attention; certainly the regs will finally get written. Though with some luck an old time conservative like this one may be inclined to order simple regs that look good but in reality accomplish little and keep the banks happy. We can hope anyway.

Skallagrim

[/ QUOTE ]

But Skall, if the regs are meaningless then how does an online poker player obtain standing to litigate against the UIGEA and the regs? I just am not satisfied with the iMEGA brief and I worry that they will lose due to lack of standing. I read their recent brief and am still dubious about standing. Perhaps if they had named one member like Party Poker, then I would feel better.