Mukasey

I really hope this isn't just a bunch of empty rhetoric:

The nomination of Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general encountered resistance today, with some Democratic senators suggesting for the first time that they might oppose Mr. Mukasey if he does not make clear that he opposes waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques that have been used against terror suspects.

[..]

At his Senate confirmation hearings last week, Mr. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, declined to say if he agreed with many lawmakers and human rights groups that waterboarding is a form of torture. He said he did not know the details of how waterboarding, an interrogation technique that has been used by the C.I.A. against senior Al Qaeda leaders, was conducted.

[...]

On Tuesday, all 10 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Mr. Mukasey asking him to make a clear-cut statement of opposition to waterboarding and to describe it as illegal.

On Thursday, the Senator Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, was asked by a reporter if Mr. Mukasey should be confirmed in light of his failure to make a statement of opposition to waterboarding.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Senator Reid said, adding that he had been “troubled” by Mr. Mukasey’s testimony last week. “I think if he doesn’t change his direction in that regard, he could have at least one concern. And that’s me.”

If Mukasey's nomination does not make it out of committee, the Republicans will shriek bloody murder. They will howl that the Democrats are keeping America from having an attorney general in a time of war. The will insist that Mukasey deserves an up-or-down vote. The Democrats should let them scream, and then repeat their insistence that Mukasey repudiate torture in all its forms, unequivocally.

There is no priority more urgent for congress than restorning the rule of American law. The lawless practices of George W. Bush are the greatest threat we face. These practices are a greater threat than terrorism, and they must be stopped. We cannot afford another chief law enforcement officer who considers himself a defender of the president, rather than a defender of the law and the citizens whom it protects.

If Michael Mukasey cannot assure the senate that his first loyalty is to the rule of law, his nomination must denied.