Mukasey's Torture Comments Give Panel Pause

Prospects for Senate confirmation of Michael Mukasey as attorney general seem to be suffering because he's not giving Democrats the answer they want on waterboarding. That's the interrogation technique that makes the subject feel like he's about to drown.

Senators including Mukasey's enthusiastic supporter, Democrat Charles Schumer, say they are reading Mukasey's written answer to questions on waterboarding. He writes that he finds it personally repugnant but doesn't have a legal opinion on whether it is torture, and therefore illegal.