AG Nomination One Step Closer To Reality

Updated 7 November, 23.17 Pacific
After President Bush nominated Michael B. Mukasey as Attorney General, Mukasey ducked a Senate Judiciary Committee question on tactics that constitute torture. He waffled when asked if waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, is illegal.

The nomination, which is almost assuredly a win for the White House, moves to the full Senate after an 11-8 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats Sen. Feinstein (CA) and Sen. Schumer (NY) voted with committee Republicans to let the nomination proceed to the full Senate for consideration, perhaps as soon as this week.

Sen. Feingold (D-WI) was in the no column, as was the remainder of the Democrats. Sen. Graham (R-SC) was in the yes column, as were all of the Republicans. (No surprises here.)

In announcing their support before the vote, both Feinstein and Schumer called for Congress to explicitly prohibit waterboarding by passing the National Security with Justice Act (S. 1876, which has had no Senate action since its introduction in July).

But do we need a new law outlawing this procedure, which dates from the Spanish Inquisition? For example, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), committee chair, received a letter (pdf) from four retired JAGs that says, in part: "Waterboarding is inhumane, it is torture, and it is illegal."

The Rule of Law is fundamental to our existence as a civilized nation. The Rule of Law is not a goal which we merely aspire to achieve; it is the floor below which we must not sink. For the Rule of Law to function effectively, however, it must provide actual rules that can be followed. In this instance, the relevant rule -- the law -- has long been clear: Waterboarding detainees amounts to illegal torture in all circumstances. To suggest otherwise -- or even to give credence to such a suggestion -- represents both an affront to the law and to the core values of our nation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced his opposition.

This Washington Times editorial takes the opposite stance of the WaPo when it comes to defining "courage" (and its stand on the nomination).

Which vote should come first -- the one that specifically outlaws torture or the one that makes Mukasey chief of the Department of Justice?

^{Originally posted 05 November 2007 @ 07:10 Eastern}