Talking Points Memo has been following the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the Michael Mukasey nomination for Attorney General pretty closely. It looks like the Dems are in the middle of another of their make-a-lot-of-noise-about-standing-up-to-the-president-before-giving-him-what-he-wants moments:

...the real battle will take place in the Senate Judiciary Committee. There, the Democrats outnumber the Republicans 10-9. And four Dems have already said they'll vote no. Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has yet to say whether he's made the full journey from "I like him" to "concerned" to "no." Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who championed Mukasey, is dodging the cameras. The rest haven't said.

I'd bet money the rest haven't said because they are busy lubing up, preparing to bend over for the preznit again. They just can't quit him.

Michael Mukasey has refused to state whether he believes waterboarding is torture. Think about that for a moment. He's up in the air about a practice that prior to the evil reign of darth and dubya was considered by the US to not only be torture, but a war crime. He has essentially begun covering for this administration on his way into the job! Doesn't that make him pretty much by definition unfit to be in charge of our Justice Department?

For me, this is as no-brainer as it gets. As a nation, if we don't have impartial justice, then we have no justice at all. What the Judiciary Committee is actually deciding is whether or not the preznit gets to continue operating above the law for the rest of his term.