Memo to SJC: Don't appoint Mukasey.

TPM:

I. Mukasey's point of view on torture:

Mukasey has firmly established that he's against torture -- yesterday he even compared it to the Holocaust (see also here).

But what exactly does that mean? Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) asked Mukasey if he thought waterboarding was torture. "If waterboarding is torture... torture is not Constitutional," he replied.

Whitehouse wasn't satisfied. "That is a massive hedge.... It either is or it isn't." Doesn't Mukasey have an opinion on whether waterboarding is torture? He went on to describe the technique, which involves using a wet rag to make the detainee feel like he's drowning. Mukasey replied with the same answer: "If it amounts to torture, then it is not Constitutional."

I'm very disappointed," Whitehouse said, adding that Mukasey's reply had been "purely semantic."

"Sorry," replied Mukasey.

II. Mukasey's point of view on presidential right to torture:

While Mukasey doesn't think there's an inherent presidential right to torture -- which he said is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution -- that's not to say he doesn't take a broad interpretation of the president's Article II authority. Reiterating an answer he gave yesterday, he told Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) that the president, for example, can authorize surveillance outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

III. Mukasey's point of view death penalty cases:

So today, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) asked Michael Mukasey what his approach to the death penalty would be. And he promised to "review every such decision" to seek the death penalty "in excruciating detail." Presumably that means more than 5-10 minutes.