Moral Dilemma, Political Expedience

Add Dick Durbin, who represents Illinois in the Senate with Barack Obama, to the ever lengthening list of Democrats who don't have the guts to consistently hang tough on the question of torture.

While Durbin did vote for a bill noted in the post above that would effectively ban torture, he has capitulated to Michael Mukasey over the attorney general's handpicked choice of Chicago federal Judge Mark Filip to be deputy attorney general.

Durbin, the Senate's assistant majority leader, had put Filip's appointment into limbo because the judge had demurred on the issue of whether waterboarding was torture under U.S. law at his confirmation hearing because Mukasey had not yet made a definite ruling on the matter.

Durbin said he needed some answers before the nomination could go forward.

Well, Mukasey still hasn't made a definitive ruling, although he has all but embraced the use of torture in recent statements.

Alas, after meeting privately with the AG and apparently getting answers of some sort from him, Durbin apparently resolved what he had described as a "moral dilemma" over whether to release the Filip nomination. It was approved unanimously yesterday.

More here.