Endangering the Program Is What It's All About
Two More Democrats To Oppose Mukasey
White House Says Justice Pick Will Still Be Confirmed
By Dan Eggen and Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 1, 2007; Page A03
Democratic support for attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey dwindled further yesterday over his refusal to comment on the legality of a harsh CIA interrogation technique, setting the stage for an unexpectedly close vote next week by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (Ill.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) announced that they will join Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) in voting against Mukasey on the Judiciary panel, after the nominee said in a four-page letter to Senate Democrats that he does not know whether a type of simulated drowning called waterboarding constitutes illegal torture under U.S. law.
. . . committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), acknowledged that Mukasey's "confirmation is at risk." But he said the nominee went "about as far as he ca…