Mukasey the Torturer

From MSNBC:

"Given that waterboarding is not part of the current program, and may never be added to the program, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to pass definitive judgment on the technique's legality," Mukasey said.

That is bullshit. It is bullshit of an astonishing caliber.

Waterboarding is torture. So, by Mukasey's line of reasoning, he is not willing to opine on the legality of putting a person on a rack, or applying thumbscrews, or throwing them into an Iron Maiden or burning them with hot irons, or branding them or whipping them, because those methods of interrogation are not used.

Mukasey can't say whether anally raping a man with a broomstick is torture.

Mukasey can't say that spraying poison gas over a populated area is a war crime because we don't do that, I guess.

Utter horseshit. He might as well submit a petition to change his name to Alberto Gonzales.

Let's run this little thought experiment: Assume, for the sake of discussion, that Mukasey is strapped to a chair in a room. Another man walks in with a loaded .45. The man presses the loaded .45 against Mukasey's head and asks, in a conversational tone of voice: "So, Mikey, me boy, would it be considered to be murder if I were to blow your brains out?"

By Mukasey's logic, he would reply: "I won't know for certain until after you've done it."

Oh, really?

You can bet your ass that he'd be mustering every persuasive fiber at his disposal to plead for his life. As would anybody else in that situation.

When it comes time to to hold the war crimes trials, Mukasey is going to be in the dock as an accessory after the fact. For that is just what he is doing, aiding and abetting the war criminals after they have done their dirty deeds. He is shaping up to be no different than the folks who helped other war criminals evade justice afte the fall of Germany in 1945.

The tragedy here is that, in a few words, Mukasey has managed to trash his reputation completely. The fall from "respected federal judge" to "bootlicking lackey scum" sure didn't take him very long at all.