bush defending waterboarding again

George Bush has threatened Congress. He says, if the Senate doesn't confirm Michael Mukasey because of concerns about whether he thinks waterboarding is torture or not, there would be no attorney general because the standard would be too high.

Yes, the President (de facto) of the United States of America, the Leader of the Free World and Promoter of Democracy, believes that attitudes about torture should not be relevant in a confirmation hearing for the country's senior legal official. And further, he believes that no "responsible nominee for attorney general" could meet the Senate's impossibly high standard of agreeing that waterboarding is torture and as such, should be illegal, mmkay?

Speaking to reporters, I (Heart) Waterboarding Bush said "It's important for Congress to pass laws and/or confirm nominees that will enable this government to more effectively defend the country and pursue terrorists and radicals that would like to do us harm." Doubtless, the radicals include Democrats and anybody else who opposes the radical Bush/Cheney program to dramatically increase presidential power to encompass basically ANYTHING as long as they say it is for national security purposes.

An aside - I suspect Mukasey personally believes that waterboarding is torture and therefore illegal under US and international law. The fact that he cannot admit this fact before the Senate shows that he will likely be as compliant an attorney-general as Alberto Gonzales, willing and able to ignore the clear meaning of law and inconvenient truths in order to advance the White House agenda. This means he would be a typical Bush appointee, and therefore Congress would be eminently within its legal rights to refuse to confirm him.

And again, it makes me sick as an American and a supporter of democracy and human rights, and a believer in the idea that America can be a force for good in the world, that the Bush Administration has made "American torture" a topic for serious debate.