Originally published on the CGS blog on November 2, 2007.
As Raj Purohit and Scott Paul have noted, we are strongly opposed to Judge Mukasey’s nomination to be our country’s next Attorney General. Surprisingly, this decision became quite easy for Citizens for Global Solutions. After all, for the next Attorney General to be unable to say if torture is torture, how can this person be trusted to speak truth to power, that is the current White House?
After Judge Mukasey’s first day of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, his nomination appeared more than safe. He was honest and straight forward, saying that “Torture is unlawful”. Then, one day later, it became obvious that somebody got to him.
Why?
Because he then testified that he could not say if waterboarding is torture.
Amazingly, this morning’s Washington Post editorial board argues that:
Mr. Mukasey is being judged not on his merits but as a proxy for Mr. Bush. Yet critics of the nomination, while understandably disturbed by Mr. Mukasey’s unwillingness to label waterboarding illegal, may be working against the last, best hope to see the rule of law reemerge in this administration..
“the last, best hope.” Don’t we and the entire global community deserve better than that?
Thankfully, the Heartland of America, via the Columbus Dispatch , makes more sense that the Washington Post:
Mukasey has already said, “Torture is unlawful under the laws of this country . . . But beyond all of those legal restrictions, we don’t torture — not simply because it’s against this or that law or against this or that treaty. It is not what this country is about.”
So he obviously understands the situation. He recognizes that torture violates American values and diminishes this country’s moral stature around the world.
Mukasey told the committee that the techniques “seem over the line or, on a personal basis, repugnant to me and would probably seem the same to many Americans.”
He’s right about that. He should follow his own statements to their logical conclusion.
The Dispatch pulls no punches, while The Post’s attempt to thread the needle just doesn’t make sense to this observer.
