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by James Oliphant, and updated
Tonight, the Senate is going into overtime to debate the nomination of Michael Mukasey as attorney general.
Mukasey passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in a narrow vote Tuesday, setting the stage for a contentious floor debate, one that has had little to do with Mukasey's qualifications for the post. Instead, the Bush administration's attitude toward abusive interrogation has been central to the conflict. Mukasey has drawn the ire of many Democrats by refusing to declare the practice of "waterboarding" as illegal torture under U.S. law. He has pledged to enforce any prohibition passed by Congress.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), one of two Democrats on the Judiciary Committee to support Mukasey's nomination, tonight made an impassioned plea for his confirmation, arguing that the retired Manhattan federal judge is the best Democrats could hope for as a choice to succeed Alberto Gonzales. Feinstein contended that if Mukasey isn't confirmed, the White House would allow the Justice Department to be run by an interim official for the remained of the administration. "This is the only chance we have," Feinstein said.
She also noted that Mukasey had nothing to do with crafting the interrogation policies at issue.
"How can this man be the standard bearer for torture?" Feinstein said. "He isn't. Why is he being treated as such?"
Following Feinstein's speech, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) rose to oppose Mukasey's confirmation, questioning whether he truly would be independent from the White House. "I hope I am wrong about Judge Mukasey," he said.
Update: In a late Thursday vote, Mukasey was confirmed by a 53-40 tally.
Comments
Sen. Schumer rightly endorsed torture when large numbers of innocent civilian lives are at stake. We aren't talking about honorable soldiers withholding war tactics, but ruthless murdering offal bent on killing children.
Pay me $500 and you can waterboard me every day.
I can't say the same about the real torture inflicted by other countries.
Posted by: whatnow | November 8, 2007 9:16 PM
Oh Jeeeez you wimpy libs...would you have approved waterboarding if it ment getting terrorist info on 9/10/2001....probably not.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | November 8, 2007 11:45 PM
Torture is illegal and unconstitutional. If Schumer or any other government official endorses torture, they should be impeached for failing to fulfill their oath to uphold the constitution. Period.
Ignorant people who argue that torture should be used against "terrorist offal" somehow always assume, despite ample evidence to the contrary from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, that torture will only be used on a few murderous extremists. You have to be completely delusional to believe the army and the CIA will never make mistakes and torure the wrong people. Yet torture supporters babble on about saving innocent lives in some fictional "ticking time bomb" scenario while ignoring the real loss of Iraqi support and the likely cost in US casualties that resulted from the "enhanced interrogations" at Abu Ghraib.
Posted by: Tom O | November 9, 2007 1:39 AM
whatnow-
If waterboarding is so pleasant, why do you believe it works to get intelligence that couldn't have been gotten by other means?
Posted by: AJF | November 9, 2007 9:39 AM
The Mukasey win is a victory for mankind, a victory for those with common sense, but it's a loss for the terrorists and a loss for the Left.
So, all in all, a pretty good day, I would say.
Posted by: John D | November 9, 2007 9:45 AM
Yeah right!
So, let's just waterbaord everyone in the world every day, in hopes that we get someone to confess that they have some evil plan in mind. Think how many lives could have been saved if we had waterboarded every student at Columbine High School every day.
Posted by: San Miguel | November 9, 2007 9:54 AM
If the Democrats can't stand together against torture and the challenge to the constitution offered by Bush and his nominee, is there any issue in the world the Democrats could champion with unity?
Posted by: c. perry | November 9, 2007 12:53 PM
Typical soft resistance from dems. Puff, puff, puff, fold. Dems could have easily blocked this nomination if they actually believed their own rhetoric, or had the courage of their convictions.
Posted by: Herbie H. | November 9, 2007 1:24 PM
Oh Jeeeez you wimpy libs...would you have approved waterboarding if it ment getting terrorist info on 9/10/2001....probably not.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | November 8, 2007 11:45 PM
No, Paulo, us wimpy libs would not; along with wimpy libs like John McCain, George Bush, Sr., Colin Powell, and many, many other folks you might consider wimpy. Waterboarding might be ok in whichever third world republic you hail from, but not here.
Posted by: Rick/Sneads Ferry, NC | November 9, 2007 5:57 PM