Reply #25: Important to remember that Yoo clerked for Clarence Thomas, whom Bush

[Nothing Without Hope]

regards as a great legal mind - along with Scalia - because they flatter him and tell him what he wants to hear.

Given Clarence Thomas' notorious laziness, I think it's likely Yoo helped write his Supreme Court decisions and did a lot of the work in that office. Surely Thomas would have given Yoo a glowing recommendation.

When Yoo told Bush that he was above the law, that he could set aside the Geneva conventions at his whim, that he has the SOLE POWER TO DECLARE WAR according to the Constitution - Bush would take it for gospel. It's exactly what he wanted to hear, after all, and that's always the only thing Bush would listen to. According to Yoo's "unique" reading of the Constitution, Congress would not be able to refuse Bush the right to declare war whenever and wherever he wanted, with no interference. His old friend Gonzales, who also got where he is today by knowing how to toady and get his hands dirty for his boss, would back up Yoo's pronouncements.

Now Yoo is a professor at UC Berkeley, where he is teaching the next generation of young legal minds what's REALLY important - making it up as you go along, to please your boss, who will grease the way for you.