Mukasey's Going to Be Confirmed

Absent a filibuster. No Republican will cross the White House on this one; even the guy who was tortured doesn't care that the Attorney General of the United States won't call obvious torture techniques torture. That's Straight Talk (TM)!

I know that Mukasey can't actually say the truth here because he would implicate Administration officials in war crimes if what he defines as torture turns out to be what they did. But that means that this White House can't have an Attorney General, then, essentially. Because they're looking for their own immunity as surely as they're looking for immunity for the telecoms. Being an Attorney General in this Administration is being an accessory to lawbreaking, and being OK with it. Maybe what he should have done is take the fifth and invoke his right not to incriminate himself.

I still have to maintain that voting to confirm Mukasey is voting to sanction the worst abuses of the Administration, including torture. In the end, our finest Senators will not do that, but enough of them will to let this guy into the Justice Department. The worst thing you can say about that is that it will probably improve the department from the last resident of the office.