So About That Waterboarding

<p>About two months ago, I <a id="b5w1" title="interviewed" href="http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004817.php">interviewed</a> Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), one of the rising stars on the Senate Judiciary Committee, about a host of Justice Department-related controversies: the U.S. attorney firings, warrantless surveillance, and the inability of newly-minted Attorney General Michael Mukasey to say waterboarding is torture. That last issue has a special association for Whitehouse. Mukasey’s confirmation nearly ran off the rails after Whitehouse pressed the then-nominee on the torture question, eliciting a euphemistic and evasive answer. In our talk, Whitehouse pledged that the committee wouldn’t relent, and would have Mukasey up to the Hill every month, if necessary, until the AG gave a yes-or-no answer.</p>

<p><br />

Well, today is the day, as they say. Mukasey is giving his <a id="nms_" title="first round of Senate testimony" href="http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=3069">first round of Senate testimony</a> as attorney general. He’s been famously uncertain on the waterboarding-as-torture question. Expect Whitehouse to pin him down as best he can.</p>