Are we sure that the GOP Senators were asked to sigh this letter? The original piece at TPMMuckraker doesn't say one way or the other, but the wording suggests that they weren't asked....

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004535.php

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and McCain apparently doesn't understand the nature of waterboarding.... it cannot be compared to having a gun pointed at your head. You can remain calm, and not panic, if someone has a gun at your head. But there is no way to drown calmly --- the body immediately goes into 'panic' mode when it senses any form of suffocation (drowning, choking, putting a plastic bag over someones head.) Its not merely a mental response, but a physiological one --- and is thus a far more extreme form of torture than the mere threat of loss of life.

Posted by: p_lukasiak at October 25, 2007 10:24 AM | Permalink to this comment

And, sadly, that is about all they do.

Posted by: jonst at October 25, 2007 12:10 PM | Permalink to this comment

Letters are nice. Will anyone refuse to vote to confirm the attorney general over this?

When it comes to this stuff, the Democrats say all the right things. But, heaven forfend, let there be no real conflict.

Yep, Nancy P, there is a new sherriff in town. We voters just didn't realize it was going to be Deputy Dawg.

Posted by: Appalled Moderate at October 25, 2007 12:45 PM | Permalink to this comment

You mean that, unlike Rockefeller, they DIDN'T file this one away in the desk drawer?!?! Well Lawdy Lawdy, I do declare -- it's gotta be right up there with Lexington and Cocord and the storming of the Bastille!! Maybe next week our "leaders" will rise to issuing letters with bold and italic fonts, to show just how miffed and peeved they are.

Look, the guy gave the stock answers one expects from the Bush two-bit fascist machine. That OUGHT to make him unacceptable, right there. Instead of fucking around writing pissant letters, all the Senators need to do is say, "This guy's no good. Here's why. Try again."

We should be at least a year into impeachment investigations and proceedings by now anyway.

Posted by: sglover at October 25, 2007 01:21 PM | Permalink to this comment

I doubt it. What an additional chapter for "The March of Folly" this last decade would make -- assuming anyone is alive to write it!

Posted by: Bruce Moomaw at October 25, 2007 04:16 PM | Permalink to this comment

I'm heartened by the letter. Mukasey's professed ignorance about "the details" of waterboarding was as disgraceful as it was incredible. If he can't bring himself to call it torture his nomination shouldn't make it out of Committee.

I imagine the Bush Administration doesn't want any further admission on the subject because mad Dick Cheney thinks application of this torture method is a "no brainer" and it’s pretty clear they already used it on Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Having an incoming AG confirm that prior practices were torture would "have to leave a mark," as they say.

That we even have to debate the point underscores how depraved this Administration is.

Posted by: Redhand at October 26, 2007 02:02 AM | Permalink to this comment