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So now that the country has undergone its collective tutorial on the torture technique waterboarding (see here, here, and here if you missed class), Congress is ready to begin voting on the nomination of Michael Mukasey for attorney general.

It’s starts this morning with the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who both reason that the Bush Administration is not likely to offer a better nominee, are expected to provide the key swing votes to put him through.

And then it’s on to the full Senate. As we’ve said before, that’s always been a safer vote for Mukasey, because of the likely support of moderates. But that ease is by design, Roll Call reports (sub. req.), because Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) decided to play the nomination hands off. Reid himself made it easier on the troubled committee Dems but refraining from announcing his position on Mukasey (which he told The Washington Post was not “much of a secret”), and the circumstances of the vote will diminish any likely further controversy:

“He’s been encouraging people to have a full-throated debate, but … he’s actually been discouraging people from filibustering or slowing down the nomination,” one knowledgeable Senate Democratic source said of Reid.

So it looks like there will be plenty of bluster aimed at satisfying civil liberties groups who are outraged that Mukasey won’t unequivocally say that he considers simulated drowning, or waterboarding, torture.

But in the end, a Democratic-led filibuster of the nominee is unlikely, given Reid’s hands-off approach to the nomination. Even if a few Democrats decided to erect a 60-vote threshold for Mukasey’s nomination, it’s not hard to imagine that 11 or more Democrats would vote with the chamber’s 49 Republicans to beat back the filibuster….

“With these kinds of nominations, it’s very hard to highlight a party position,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. He added, “This gets to the core of what the Senate is all about — the traditional role of advice and consent. … In the end, it’s up to each individual Senator to decide how they’re going to vote on these nominees.”

But not to worry: there will be a kind of consolation prize for all those outraged civil liberties groups. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) will offer a bill that would specifically outlaw waterboarding — so that even if we have an attorney general who hedges on whether it’s torture, his hands would be tied.

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