Mukasey Wins Vote in Senate, Despite Democrats’ Doubts
It's official. The United States have just appointed a man as Attorney General - the highest law officer in the land - who is unsure whether or not waterboarding constitutes torture.
The 53-to-40 vote made Mr. Mukasey, a former federal judge, the third person to head the Justice Department during the tenure of President Bush, placing him in charge of an agency that members of both parties say suffered under the leadership of Alberto R. Gonzales.
Six Democrats joined 46 Republicans and one independent in approving the judge, with his backers praising him as a strong choice to restore morale at the Justice Department and independently oversee federal prosecutions in the final months of the Bush administration.
But Democrats said Mr. Mukasey’s refusal to characterize waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, as illegal torture disqualified him from taking over as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
“I am not going to aid and abet the confirmation contortions of this administration,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “I do not vote to allow torture.”
I know that Bush is now a lame duck President and that the verdict is in on his failed presidency, but it is nevertheless very harmful for America's image worldwide that a person confused over something so basic could be appointed Attorney General.
There was a day when the US led the world in promoting civil rights and opposing torture; the appointment of a man who cannot say whether or not one of the oldest torture techniques in the world actually constitutes torture, simply because he is worried that the CIA might have employed such a technique, says that the US have appointed a man who will decide what is legal - not based on international and US domestic law - but rather on the basis that anything the US have done cannot be illegal.
It had all started out so well:
On the first day of his confirmation hearings, Mr. Mukasey said he would resign if directed by the White House to take any action he believed was illegal or violated the Constitution, winning Democratic praise.But it quickly began to unravel:
This was the cue for people like Giuliani to step up to the plate and say waterboarding might not be torture depending on "who did it" and "how it is done", as if there were numerous humane ways to fill someone's lungs with water and start to drown them.On the second day of his testimony, Mr. Mukasey sidestepped the question of whether waterboarding was torture and also suggested that the president’s Constitutional powers could supersede federal law in some cases.
Those responses stirred strong Democratic opposition, throwing his confirmation into question. Trying to stem the rising opposition, Mr. Mukasey said that while he personally found the concept of waterboarding repugnant, he could not pass judgment on whether it was illegal because he had not been briefed on administration interrogation techniques.
“During his confirmation hearings, Judge Mukasey expressed views about executive power that I and many other senators found deeply disturbing,” Mr. Reid said. “And I was outraged by his evasive, hair-splitting approach to questions about the legality of waterboarding.”
Republicans hailed Mr. Mukasey and accused Democrats of stalling the nomination and focusing on the torture issue to score political points.
Focusing on torture is considered "scoring political points" by the Republicans, as if this is not something that Americans have been traditionally the strongest nation on Earth at opposing.
I personally think it's a sad day for everyone that Mukasey has been confirmed without withdrawing his mock confusion over something so basic.
And it's a further indication that far from being a fresh and independent Attorney General; Bush has, yet again, put forward a candidate whose view of unbridled executive power perfectly matches his own. And some Democrats like Charles E. Schumer and the shameless Dianne Feinstein - who is surely a Democrat only in name? - have assisted the Republicans in ensuring that this man takes up the position of the highest law officer in the land, whilst appearing not to understand very basic laws regarding the treatment of persons held in custody.
So, it business as usual at the Department of Torture.
Where has America gone?
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