Profoundly betraying principle and party, the hands that held the dagger have struck it into the back of the constitution. Only someone extorted by the most exquisite blackmail could be so base as these two. (Help me, Jesus, Dianne is my senator!).

That said, The Tony Montana Institute is entertaining a side bet on the Fortney pool entailing a speculation as to the secret the publication of which the Fortney Nominee fears.

Bearing in mind that one may fear the publication of something said about one, I personally am speculating in the case of DiFi (Dan White's third crime...) that there's is, in the vast sweep of email and conversation that now goes into the federal maw, a tape of her husband Dick describing the pain with which he endeavors to rise to the performance of her uxorial demands.

Others are free to speculate differently.

(What WAS in those 32 intercepts that John Bolton got and went down in flames before revealing, anyway?)

Mukasey appears to be the only person over the age of 5 in the entire country who doesn't know what waterboarding is.

As we reflect on the astonishing sequel to that preposterous assertion, viz: an additional several days to come up with a written "do-over" which did nothing but obfuscate, ought we not demand an *epistomological shift in the confirmation process?

There really should be a **statutory penalty for aggravated disingenuousness (here with "enhancements"...) that would immediately close down a confirmation hearing and result in the matter NEVER leaving committee. End of nomination. No written do-overs, the death penalty (as it were) for telling STUPID lies.

It is insulting to the institution of the Senate, and to the intelligence of the people of the United States, for a cabinet nominee to utter such vapidities under oath. Even people who watch Fox (especially...) know what waterboarding is, and they don't know anything.

One recalls (with horror at the ultimate result) the equally incredible protestation from Clarence Thomas at his hearing that he had never formed an opinion about Roe v. Wade!

(There is another variant of this scam, called the "waiting for the full investigation" stall, that Condi Rice just ran, but we will not deal with that one here.)

*Instead of questions and answers where the "answer" is the content of the reply given, the "answer" is the performance of the evasion.

**I believe there is already an informal version of this entitled:"*This Chairman is never calling the meeting to vote on the nomination" aka, "bottled up in committee".

*Some chairman with balls, not Leahy...