A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Even though Mukasey is best buddies with Rudy Giuliani (which tells you a lot already), Chuck Schumer championed him for the AG spot with such zeal you would have thought Chuck was mainlining speed.

But after Mukasey refused to declare waterboarding and other torture as illegal, many thought Schumer, who heads the Democratic Senate re-election effort, might have had second thoughts. After all, Mukasey was doing the Bush Administration bob and weave.

In short, Mukasey was signaling to anybody with common sense that he was going to let the Bush Administration have their way with torture – and that he would likely legally absolve them of any past illegal and criminal actions involving such activity.

But Schumer joined Dianne Feinstein [0] in giving his stamp of approval to another Bush made man, although a bit more "upper crust" than Alberto G, even after Mukasey’s dishonest testimony about waterboarding.

If you’re wondering why Schumer is sticking with Mukasey, despite a grassroots revolt among many Democrats, it’s because Chuck is on record in support of Bush having the right to torture.

But don’t trust us.

Here’s what Schumer, himself, had to say [1] in a 2004 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with then Attorney General John Ashcroft:

So it's easy to sit back in the armchair and say that torture can never be used. But when you're in the foxhole, it's a very different deal.

And I respect -- I think we all respect the fact that the president's in the foxhole every day. So he can hardly be blamed for asking you or his White House counsel or the Department of Defense to figure out when it comes to torture, what the law allows and when the law allows it and what there is permission to do.

Of course, the problem is that Bush picks people who will interpret to the law to allow him to torture, which the law does not allow him to do (nor does it allow him to outsource the torture to other nations). In fact, it is a war crime.

Chuck Schumer knows all this.

It’s not that he’s willing to overlook Mukasey’s nod and wink about torture.

The pathetic reality for America – and our soldiers whose lives are at risk because when captured we cannot condemn them being tortured if we do it – is that Chuck Schumer is winking back.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS