Michael Mukasey has been sworn in as U.S. attorney general, a day after 53 senators decided that a man who doesn’t know what torture is should have the job. But the real blame — for anyone who objects to the confirmation, that is — should be reserved for Democrats Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, who made Bush’s day when they gave Mukasey the green light.

New York Times:

“The Department of Justice needs Judge Mukasey at work tomorrow morning,” said Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “The Department of Justice has been categorized as dysfunctional and in disarray. It is in urgent need of an attorney general.”

But Democrats said Mr. Mukasey’s refusal to characterize waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning, as illegal torture disqualified him from taking over as the nation’s top law enforcement official.

“I am not going to aid and abet the confirmation contortions of this administration,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “I do not vote to allow torture.”

Read more