chuck schumer's op-ed piece in today's NYT explaining why he is voting to confirm mukasey is a joke. chucky makes two basic points:
(1) that the justice department is a mess and requires strong leadership by someone who displays independence from the white house, and
(2) that while mukasey refusal to say waterboarding is illegal is disappointing, congress will make it illegal and schumer is confident that mukasey will enforce that law.
the thing that schumer doesn't seem to notice is that #1 and #2 are not independent issues. the only reason mukasey is being so cagey about waterboarding is because he is already committed, or at least is unwilling to undermine, the administration's position on torture. the fact that he is unwilling to go against the administration on waterboarding illustrates that he is not as independent of the white house as they say.
if he wanted to show his independence, he wouldn't have a problem in answering the waterboarding question. even if he thought waterboarding was okay, a truly independent person would have no trouble just saying so. instead what we have gotten is an extended non-answer, one that looks suspiciously like it was crafted by the white house's policial handlers.
schumer argues that because the justice department needs new leadership so badly we should overlook the waterboarding issue when it comes to mukasey. the problem is that waterboarding is more than just its own issue, it reveals that mukasey is not the kind of new leader the department requires.
