Update: AG Mukasey’s confused — and confusing — reasoning

At today’s Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Mukasey admits that the DoJ’s Office of Legal Counsel produced poorly written legal memoranda on torture that fell far below OLC standards of legal analysis. He blames the production of these memos on a “cycle of aggressiveness and timidity” within the Bush administration.

So, a charged political climate led to sub-par legal analysis. Sounds like something we’d like to have less of in the future, right?

Only, for Mr. Mukasey, these facts argue for protecting lawyers’ ability to write these kinds of memos without fear of consequences.

Confused? You should be.