Mukasey.

Judge Mukasey should not be confirmed as Attorney General. However, it is likely that he will be so let us hope for the best.

He would not say if the near drowning technique of enhanced interrogation known as waterboarding was torture and as such, illegal under either the Constitution, U.S.Code or international treaties of which we are a party. He did say that personally he was against such torture techniques, so perhaps there is hope.

Perhaps the pertinent question that should have been asked was if he intended to place the Constitution and the rule of law above loyalty to party or president, the oath of office, after all, requires exactly that. After the disastrous tenure of Alberto Gonzales, the country demands nothing less.

The Attorney General, while a political appointment of the occupant of the Oval Office, nonetheless has a duty, no, an obligation to place the Constitution and the law above all else, period. It has been said that Mukasey's judicial record has been mixed, so perhaps there is hope.

The events in Pakistan are an example of what may be in store for America, an emergency declaration, suspension of the constitution and Martial Law. I wonder if the American people would protest as boldly as the people of Pakistan seem to be doing to show their opposition to a dictator.

These are dangerous times for America and the world. There are some who would welcome a dictatorship here, they are what has been referred to as Bush's base, that 24%-30% of the people who see and will see nothing wrong with whatever excess or abomination he brings upon our nation.

The near drowning torture technique is merely the tip of the iceberg. The time has come to rein in the imperial presidency. The survival of the Rule of Law and the Constitutional government left us by The Founders requires it and Judge Mukasey might, just might, be the man who would step into the breach and tell the petulant, spoiled little bully in the White House, enough!