Ethics Newsline®

WASHINGTON
The controversy over U.S. attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey’s stand on torture continued to simmer late last week, with moral arguments being waged by both supporters and detractors.

As the business week closed in Washington, Mukasey’s chances appeared to improve as two powerful Judiciary Committee Democrats, senators Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Charles Schumer (N.Y.), broke ranks and announced support for his nomination, Bloomberg reports.

According to the Los Angeles Times, their support may have hinged on the results of a closed-door meeting in which Mukasey was reported to have told Schumer that if Congress were to pass a law banning so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, President Bush would have no choice but to obey it.

Mukasey’s nomination at first appeared to be a shoe-in but ran into trouble two weeks ago when Democrats balked at his reluctance to declare that waterboarding, a technique that recreates the effects of drowning, constitutes torture and therefore is unconstitutional.

But Mukasey’s characterization of the practice as “repugnant” seemed to satisfy some of his critics on both sides of the aisle, including Republican senator John McCain (Ariz.), who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, reports the Financial Times.

Mukasey had asserted that without first-hand knowledge of the scope and extent of enhanced interrogation techniques, which are classified, he could not make a specific determination of legality, according to reports from USA Today and the Chicago Tribune.

The Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to send the nomination to the floor of the full Senate.