Clarity on Mukasey

The New York Times lead editorial today is a blistering attack on the failure of Democrats to stand up to President Bush on Iraq--and most everything else. It is particularly strong on New York Senator Charles Schumer's capitulation on the Mukasey nomination.

Senator Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat who turned the tide for this nomination, said that if the Senate did not approve Mr. Mukasey, the president would get by with an interim appointment who would be under the sway of “the extreme ideology of Vice President Dick Cheney.” He argued that Mr. Mukasey could be counted on to reverse the politicization of the Justice Department that occurred under Alberto Gonzales, and that Mr. Mukasey’s reticence about calling waterboarding illegal might well become moot, because the Senate was considering a law making clear that it is illegal.

That is precisely the sort of cozy rationalization that Mr. Schumer and his colleagues have used so many times to back down from a confrontation with Mr. Bush. The truth is, Mr. Mukasey is already in the grip of that “extreme ideology.” If he were not, he could have answered the question about waterboarding.

One of the reasons that Schumer gave for confirming Mukasey is that he will reinstitute professionalism in the Justice Department. But if Judge Mukasey is a truly principled lawyer, why did he agree to serve an administration so riven with corruption, and if he were going to stand up for independence in the Department, why was he unwilling to speak the truth about torture?