Another disgusting AG

Though attorney general Alberto Gonzales has departed the scene of the Bushite crimes, his successor Michael Mukasey is marching to the same old dreadful drumbeat.

Bush loyalist Mukasey cannot bring himself to admit that waterboarding - prohibited by the US military and the CIA - is a form of torture and therefore clearly illegal.

Mukasey tangled this week with Senators Patrick Leahy, Ted Kennedy and Arlen Specter. Leahy told the AG: "It is not enough just to say that waterboarding is not currently authorized. The attorney general of the United States should be able to declare that it is wrong, it is illegal, and it is beyond the pale. It has been for over a century."

Eleven more months of this hellish administration. God help us.