Nov. 2 (LPAC)--Shortly after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy announced that he will oppose the confirmation of waterboard Michael B. Mukasey to be President Bush's next Attorney General, two Judiciary Committee Democrats announced their support for the nominee -- likely assuring his confirmation, unless there is a dramatic shift over the next week.

Despite Mukasay's refusal to acknowledge what everyone knows -- that waterboarding is torture -- Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced his support for Mukasey, whose nomination he had sponsored in the first place. Schumer said he had received {private} assurances from Mukasay that if Congress outlawed waterboarding (which is totally unnecessary, since the U.S. has treated it as a war crime for a hundred years), he would not approve it.

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) soon announced her support for Mukasey, on the grounds that he "is not Alberto Gonzales."

So far, no Republican has indicated a "no" vote on the nomination, although Sen. Arlen Specter has been critical of Mukasey. Unless this changes, Mukasey's nomination is likely to be voted out of committee by an 11-8 vote, and it will then go to the Senate floor, where it only needs 51 votes to be approved.

Announcing his opposition earlier today, Leahy asked: "When the United States cannot declare clearly that waterboarding is torture, that it is illegal, and that it will not be tolerated, what does that mean to other governments, and what comfort does that provide the world's most repressive regimes?... What kind of double standard does America set if we cannot declare waterboarding to be illegal?"