Media Spotlight

Squeezing Mukasey on Torture (National)
This article nails this issue on the democrats and their decision to push Mukasey to declare waterboarding illegal. Veteran Illinois Senator Dick Durbin was the first to ask Mukasey about his position on waterboarding during the Oct. 18 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing to which Mukasey said, "It is not constitutional for the United States to engage in torture in any form, be it waterboarding or anything else."

However, Times points out the problem democrats face now that Durbin "drafted a letter to Mukasey asking him to state — or rather, to restate — that waterboarding is torture and therefore illegal." The move they note as "politically savvy" but "not without its own risks".

The article says it best with, "Now that Mukasey has responded with a hedge democrats practically helped write, the burden of moral clarity is on them. Will they reject Mukasey on the moral absolute of torture, or will they quietly abandon the moral high ground in the interest of getting a competent hand on the wheel at the demoralized Justice Department?"