Senate Confirms Mukasey

A new logo for the Department of Justice?

If there was ever an argument for more progressives in Congress, it was repeated resoundingly today. Michael Mukasey, the eighteen year federal judge who didn't know that waterboarding was already a crime, was confirmed by the Senate today, 53 to 40. As the Associated Press observes:

But members of [Senator Dianne Feinstein's] own party didn't agree. Mukasey, his opponents argued, refused to say whether waterboarding is torture and put the onus on Congress to pass a law against the practice.

"This is like saying when somebody murders somebody with a a baseball bat and you say, 'We had a law against murder but we never mentioned baseball bats,"' said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. "Murder is murder. Torture is torture."

Senate confirms Mukasey as attorney general after sharp debate over waterboarding

Despite the seeming obviousness of Leahy's statement, authoritarian Democrat Dianne Feinstein decided this was all they could manage:

"whether to confirm Michael Mukasey as the next attorney general or whether to leave the Department of Justice without a real leader for the next 14 months," said one Democratic supporter, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California.

"This is the only chance we have," she said, referring to Bush's threat to appoint an acting attorney general not subject to Senate confirmation.

Senate confirms Mukasey as attorney general after sharp debate over waterboarding

I'd say that the DoJ has been far better off for the last month than they'd been during Abu Gonzalez's reign. There are worse things for a bureaucracy than being leaderless for a few months. Of course, people who imagine themselves to be leaders tend to forget that.

So, thanks to this crew of idiots, we're stuck with someone who won't investigate obvious cases of torture because no one said it was torture if it happened on a Tuesday. The Yea votes, AKA "the idiots", were all Republicans in attendance, plus these Democrats:

• Bayh (D-IN)


• Carper (D-DE


• Feinstein (D-CA)


• Lieberman (ID-CT)


• Nelson (D-NE)


• Schumer (D-NY)

Among the Democrats, Biden, Clinton, Obama, and Dodd did not vote. Republicans not there were Alexander, Cornyn, and McCain.

UPDATE: Among the Senators who voted against Mukasey was Patty Murray (D-WA), who issued this statement:

"Unfortunately, at a time when Americans need an Attorney General who will restore their faith in the independence of the Department of Justice, I am disappointed to find that Judge Mukasey is not that nominee.

"From his responses, I do not believe that Judge Mukasey will stand up to the President when he has crossed the boundaries of his authority. Rather, his responses show that he is too willing to bend the law to conform to the President’s actions, and for that reason, I will vote against his confirmation.

"America is a nation of laws. We believe that no person is above the law, not even the President.

Murray to Oppose Mukasey Nomination to Head Justice Department

I think that will have to do as a coda for this sad chapter of the 110th Congress. I couldn't have said it any better.

UPDATE 2: Evan Wallach, a former JAG officer, wrote an op-ed entitled Waterboarding Used to Be a Crime for the Washington Post. Anyone who still thinks that waterboarding isn't considered torture by law just isn't paying attention.