Gonzales' contempt was shown by his pretense as an inept amnesiac, pretending that he couldn't recall anything when asked about substantive matters.  Mukasey's contempt is overt, stating straightforwardly that he has no intention of providing information, as required by law, to a Congressional committee.  Though different in method, the effect is the same.  Contempt of Congress.

From the New York Times:  "The Justice Department asked the House Intelligence Committee on Friday to postpone its investigation into the destruction of videotapes by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2005, saying the Congressional inquiry presented 'significant risks' to its own preliminary investigation into the matter."  Mukasey "is refusing to provide information about any role it might have played in the destruction of the videotapes."

Yes, it would be a significant risk to the Bush administration to have a legal proceeding by Congress uncover even more evidence of obstruction of justice by destruction of evidence.

"Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said the department would not comply with Congressional requests for information now because of 'our interest in avoiding any perception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to political influence.'"

The irony here is that even though the Bush administration has brought to absolute perfection the use of political influence on our government to convert it to a subsidiary of the Republican party, Mukasey is saying that if you are not a Republican member of the Bush administration, if you are only a Congressional committee legally requesting information from the holy sanctum of Bush's Justice Department, you are merely a "political influence."  A political influence that is at odds with Bush's political influence, and therefore not allowed.

The Bush administration told U. S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy that demanding information about the destruction of the tapes could potentially complicate the ongoing efforts to arrive at a full, factual understanding of the matter. 

Judge Kennedy must keep in mind that this is the same Bush administration that presented as its full, factual understanding of the matter that Iraq was responsible for 9/11, that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq was allied with al Qaeda, all of which was proven to be self-serving lies.  And, Judge Kennedy should remember that nothing George Bush or his administration has said about Irag and the torture of non-existent "enemy combatants" has been true.  Bush and his administration have a perfect record of being irrevocably wrong about everything.

Bush's record speaks for itself.  It's a record with no truth in it, and now the destroyed tapes are one more part of that same, untruthful record.  Mukasey is doing what Gonzales did.  He's going to investigate his own department's part in the cover-up of the destroyed tapes and will inevitaby find, in that Gonzales-like, iconic phrase that epitomizes the covering of one's self with the blanket of assumed ignorance, "I know nozzing." 

Once again, we have an Attorney General of the executive branch of government showing his utter contempt for the legislative branch.  Just as Gonzales did.  Gonzales blamed it on his ignorance.  Mukasey blames it on resistance to his contrived "political influence."  The effect is the same, no matter what you call it.

The circmstances that led to Gonzales and Mukasey are identical.  We couldn't have expected otherwise.  Both are Republicans.  Both were picked by George Bush, the one thing that damned them both to failure.  Both were confirmed by a Congress, whether Republican or Democratic, that has show it wants oh so desperately to do exactly what George Bush wants.  The result was foreordained.  And now, we are seeing that result.