What do you know about Michael Chertoff?

[napi21]

I know he was a Fed. Appeals Court Judge, but not much else.

I personally this this Sec. of Homeland Security position is about the worst job you could ever have, but do you think this Chernoff will at least try, or will he be one of Shrub's a** kissers and just make matters worse?

[blm]

1. Chertoff is a longtime legal operative for the GOp and VERY PARTISAN.

He's WAY too partisan for the job.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

2. he was a lawyer for Starr on Whitewater and authored The Patriot Act......

and a big muck-muck in NJ,(don't remember what office he held tho) but, he SUCKS!

[napi21]

3. This could be good! What can we find on him?

You know the story...Pay back's a b*tch! The Patriot act is already under scrutiny by both sides, and I really believe that anyone who gets to the top jobs in US Gov't has a lot of skeletons to hide. Pubs do a better job at hiding theirs, but good investigation can find them! I bet the Clintons would help, and they've got connections.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. i'll see what i can dig up

[Mabus]

7. From Opensecrets.org

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=chertoff&txtState=%28all+states%29&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2002=Y&txt2000=Y&Order=N


Law firm: Latham &Watkins.

Wife: Meryl (?)

[Coastie for Truth]

8. Politics of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals

Senator Rick Santorum has a lot of apparent control over appointments to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, PR).

Santorum peremptorily and perfunctorily vetoed Clinton's nominees to the court (including a Democratic former federal prosecutor who was close with Thornburgh and Hatch - but who had the gall to support Harris Wofford against Santorum)

Santorum approved Chertoff - tells you something

[Mabus]

4. From Counterpunch

But now I have a new gremlin to watch, someone who is as intent on undermining the law and Constitution as Ashcroft. I am referring to the man behind the criminal prosecution of terrorists, Michael Chertoff. Chertoff, former chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, and a scary looking guy if ever there was one, has been elevated to the level of Court of Appeals judge--the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. What's so scary about Michael? Well, besides having no judicial experience and being a right-ring radical who does not believe in the Constitution and wants to rewrite federal law and rules of procedure on an ad hoc, case by case basis, as it suits him, nothing I guess.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cassel06112003.html

[maxsmom]

5. Zionist--Ashcroft's top gremlin

silenced 911 whistle blowers, helped whitewash Whitewater for the Clinton Crime Family, covers up for and controls organized crime and International Bankers, to name a few of his accomplishments.

http://www.jackblood.com/index/id1.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/cassel06112003.html

http://www.rense.com/general36/zinf.htm

[Coastie for Truth]

11. As a FORMER Chemical (Petroleum Refinery) ENGINEER, posting from RENSE

As a FORMER CHEMICAL (Petroleum Refinery) ENGINEER, posting from RENSE is not credible. About as credible as reading about energy policy in Chemical Engineering Progress.

[Mabus]

9. Worked under Rudy

Serving under U.S. Attorney Giuliani in the 1980s, Chertoff prosecuted the former boss of the Genovese crime family. He also put the founder of Crazy Eddie electronics behind bars for stock fraud. http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/35510p-33570c.html

****
Attorney General John Ashcroft, 60, is the Justice Department's public face, the former politician who relishes the spotlight. Next in line is Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson. But Chertoff, 48, a former U.S. attorney and defense lawyer who oversees the department's Criminal Division, is the legal strategist who has quietly played a key role in decisions to:

* Increase FBI agents' authority to conduct domestic surveillance, changing a decades-old approach that limited investigations of political and religious groups.
* Use immigration regulations and "material witness" warrants to secretly lock up hundreds of Middle Easterners. Before Sept. 11, such warrants were used largely to ensure that witnesses would appear in court.
* Interview thousands of Middle Eastern men who entered the USA before and after the attacks. Arab-American groups say the strategy amounted to a roundup of new immigrants singled out because of their ethnicity.
* Launch the case against Moussaoui despite the FBI's concern that agents hadn't found a direct link between him and any of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. In court, Moussaoui has acknowledged being a member of the al-Qaeda terrorist network but has said he was not involved in the attacks.
* Prosecute Moussaoui and American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh here, in a pro-government court district near Washington, rather than in New York, where the nation's biggest terrorism trials had been held. Chertoff was a key player in talks with Lindh's attorneys last month when Lindh pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban and agreed to serve 20 years in prison.

Ashcroft has been a frequent target of civil libertarians who say the Bush administration is using the war on terrorism to stifle individual rights. But Chertoff's role hasn't gone unnoticed.

"Chertoff has bought into a very simplistic rationale for an egregious assault on civil liberties," says Laura Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's national office in Washington, D.C. "He's not as flashy or prone to hyperbole as Ashcroft, but he still embraces a very scary 'damn the Bill of Rights' attitude." http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-08-13-chertoff_x.htm

[spanone]

10. He tried his best to bring down Bill & Hillary. Ken Starr associate.

[Hephaistos]

12. Possible 9/11 co-conspirator?

Via Atrios comments:

http://www.opednews.com/duncan_090504_njterrorism2.htm

read down...

[UTUSN]

13. In Charge of the ANTHRAX "Investigation"----Oh. n/t

[Piperay]

15. Oh man...

yeah we all know what a raging SUC(K)cess that has been. x(

[cosmicdot]

14. Federalist Society

Richard Mellon Scaife, original funder

maybe Scaife is the source of some of Chertoff's money ... RMS had floated a couple of million for 'the Arkansas Project'

According to a Salon article: "So, in 1982, Meese, Rehnquist and other first-generation legal conservatives reached out to law students and encouraged the founding of a new organization: the Federalist Society. Funded generously by Richard Mellon Scaife and patrons, the Federalist Society became a national networking organization that nurtured young conservatives and swiftly became the crucial channel to Supreme Court clerkships and prestigious jobs in the Reagan administration. In "Closed Chambers," former clerk Lazarus outlines how Federalist Society clerks formed a self-described "cabal against the libs" to push justices in a rightward direction. Conservative donors like Scaife were encouraged to endow professorships and to fund conferences and training institutes to tutor judges in corporate deregulation and other articles of conservative legal faith."

http://www.salon.com/news/1998/07/03news.html