TRIBAL LOYALTIES TRUMP TORTURE ISSUE

 

Congressional Jews rush
to rescue Mukasey nomination

 

2 Key Dems Back Attorney General Pick
Associated Press Friday, 2 November 2007 / 5:21 PM (ET)

By DEVLIN BARRETT & LARA JAKES JORDAN

WASHINGTON — Michael Mukasey drew closer to becoming
attorney general Friday after two key Senate Democrats
said they would vote for him despite his refusal to define
an interrogation technique that simulates drowning as torture.

Bush's Jewish nominee for attorney general

The decision by Sens. Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein
came shortly after the chairman of the committee, Patrick Leahy,
D-Vt., announced he would vote against Mukasey, a former
federal judge.

"This is an extremely difficult decision," Schumer said in a
statement, adding that Mukasey "is not my ideal choice."

In announcing her support for Mukasey, Feinstein, D-Calif., said
"first and foremost, Michael Mukasey is not Alberto Gonzales,"
referring to the former attorney general who resigned in
September after months of questions about his honesty.

Including Leahy, five of the Judiciary Committee's 10 Democrats
had said they would vote against Mukasey's confirmation after
the nominee earlier this week refused to say that waterboarding,
an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, is torture
and therefore illegal.

Mukasey approval now virtually assured

But with nine Republicans on the panel, Schumer's and Feinstein's
support for Mukasey virtually guarantees that a majority of the
committee will recommend his confirmation when it votes on it
next Tuesday.

Leaders in both parties have said they expect Mukasey to get
at least 70 votes when the full, 100-member Senate votes on
his confirmation. But Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had
said he would not bring it up for a vote without Judiciary
Committee action first.

Schumer's announcement followed a private meeting Friday with
Mukasey to discuss waterboarding.

"I deeply oppose it," Schumer said of waterboarding.
"Unfortunately, this nominee, indeed any proposed by President
Bush, will not agree with this. I am, however, confident that this
nominee would enforce a law that bans waterboarding."

Schumer, who was Mukasey's chief Democratic sponsor, said
the retired judge told him that if Congress passes a law banning
waterboarding "the president would have absolutely no legal
authority to ignore such a law." Schumer said Mukasey said he
would enforce any congressional ban the controversial
interrogation method.

Doesn't know if waterboarding is torture

Torture is considered a war crime by the international community
and waterboarding has been banned by the U.S. military, but CIA
interrogators are believed to have used the technique on terror
detainees as recently as a few years ago.

Mukasey has called waterboarding personally "repugnant," and in
a letter to senators this week said he did not know enough about
how it has been used to define it as torture. He also said he
thought it would be irresponsible to discuss it since doing so could
make interrogators and other government officials vulnerable to
lawsuits.

Early Friday, President Bush renewed his plea for Mukasey's
confirmation.

"He's a good man. He's a fair man. He's an independent man,
and he's plenty qualified to be attorney general," Bush said of
Mukasey, just after landing in Columbia, S.C., on his way to a
political fundraiser and to give a speech at Fort Jackson.

On Thursday, Bush had warned that the Justice Department
would go without a leader in a time of war if Democrats thwarted
Mukasey.

Bush also said that if the Judiciary Committee were to block
Mukasey because of his noncommittal stance on the legality of
waterboarding, it would set a new standard for confirmation that
could not be met by any responsible nominee for attorney general.