http://www.nytimes.com/...
Should we reject Judge Mukasey, President Bush has said he would install an acting, caretaker attorney general who could serve for the rest of his term without the advice and consent of the Senate. To accept such an unaccountable attorney general, I believe, would be to surrender the department to the extreme ideology of Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington. All the work we did to pressure Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign would be undone in a moment.
Here we have evidence of a pattern: Congress always caves to Bush because he threatens them with something even worse if they don't.
I deeply oppose this administration’s opaque policy on the use of torture — its refusal to reveal what forms of interrogation it considers acceptable.
The Administration has already waterboarded. So it's acceptable to them. Isn't that very simple to assess?
In particular, I believe that the cruel and inhumane technique of waterboarding is not only repugnant but also illegal under current laws and conventions.
In other words, Schumer is in favor of nominating an Attorney General who refuses to rule out supporting an illegal act.
But Congress is now considering a law that would explicitly ban the use of waterboarding and other abusive interrogation techniques. And I am confident that Judge Mukasey would enforce that law (because) on Friday, he personally made clear to me that if the law were in place, the president would have no legal authority to ignore it — not even under some theory of inherent authority granted by Article II of the Constitution, as Vice President Cheney might argue. Nor would the president be able to evade a clear pronouncement on the subject from the courts. Judge Mukasey also pledged to enforce such a law.
Mukasey takes Schumer aside:
Mukasey: "You know, just between you and me, Chuck, I'd make Bush obey a law against it."
Schumer: "You sure?"
Mukasey. "Scout's honor."
Schumer. "Okay."