Mukasey, One-Dunk, and Beyond
This is my attempt to think clearly about waterboarding. I know it irritates some conservatives to think that (a) any conservative might attack Mukasey at this Moment of Great Need and (b) any conservative might attack Mukasey on the basis of his absence of legal opposition to an Enhanced Interrogation Technique. I myself would greatly relish seeing Mukasey sail through confirmation and get about the business of repairing the damage that the Barney Rubble of the Bush government has inflicted on DOJ. If, that is, I had not sat myself down and thought through waterboarding and determined that Mukasey so far is not wrong but is not adequately right either. I have a high threshold for calling something torture — I’m old school like that — but where we set that threshold must not be our only guide in determining whether or not we should grant the government the free use of a particular coercive practice. That’s all for now.
