President Bush today lashed out at the grilling Mukasey is receiving. According to Reutershe said this:
"I believe the questions he's been asked are unfair," Bush said in an Oval Office session with reporters. "He's been asked to give opinions on a program -- or techniques of a program -- on which he has not been briefed."
[Emphasis mine]
Now, here's the thing. This is an out and out lie. (Of course)
The fact is, Mukasey's real problem is that he is not being asked a hypothetical, AT ALL. What he is being asked is not whether the use of waterboarding by agents working under the authority of the US Govt. is illegal--which is a hypothetical as long as Mukasey has not been briefed--but whether waterboarding is torture. This is a straightforward, definitional issue. It draws on what Mukasey's understanding of torture is, it draws on Mukasey's understanding of the meaning of "waterboarding", and it draws on his understanding of the law. It has nothing whatsoever to do with any of Bush's immoral, nefarious, secret programs.
Mukasey is simply lying by refusing to answer a simple question. And Bush is lying by pretending it's about whether the use of as-yet-unknown techniques in an as-yet-unknown program to develop useful intelligence is legal (and the MSM is lying by refusing to clarify the issue).
People, let's get this straight: Mukasey will not explain what he believes torture to cover because he wants to be able to back away from it later. There is no alternative explanation.
And there is no conceivable reason on Earth for anyone to support his nomination.