Torture Blog

I found the majority of my information at http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13463.html

I was assigned to report on the pro-Mukasey senators standpoint. The two most notable pro-Mukasey senators are California's Dianne Feinstein and New York's Chuck Schumer. While there are many republican pro-Mukasey senators, these two senators are democrats which makes them more controversial. This is because for the most part the republicans are in favor of electing Mukasey for attorney general, but the democrats are not. Since these two democratic senators have decided that they will vote for Mukasey, it seems as though he will be appointed the new attorney general. The reason Mukasey is so controversial in the eyes of the public is because he claimed not to know whether water boarding is torture.

Both Schumer and Feinstein offered explanations for why they supported Michael Mukasey. After having a private meeting with Mukasey, Schumer was assured Muksey would be a trustworthy attorney general. He said Mukasey agreed that if congress passed a law that prohibited water boarding the president would have to follow it. “He also pledged to enforce such a law and repeated his willingness to leave office rather than participate in a violation of law.” However, Mukasey is hypocritical in saying this because earlier he said that if national security is jepordized the president has the right to ignore certain laws. So he contradicts himself by saying that he will force the president to obey congress.

Feinstein had a different angle as to why she supports Michael Mukasey. Quite simply, her argument is that Mukasey is better than Alberto Gonzales. So basically her logic is that because Mukasey is not as bad as Alberto Gonzales, she will support him.