How good is Michael Mukasey feeling, after he was confirmed as the 81st attorney general last night? Hm, maybe not so good. According to the Washington Post, the 53-40 vote means Rudy's buddy had the lowest level of congressional support in the past half-century. That's right: People have less confidence in him than they had in John Ashcroft. Some Democrats are still giving Chuck Schumer and the other handful of Democrats who voted for Mukasey the stink eye, since he refused to classify waterboarding, a simulated-drowning technique, as torture. "This is like saying when somebody murders somebody with a baseball bat and you say, 'We had a law against murder, but we never mentioned baseball bats,'" Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy said (kind of amusingly, we might add). “This man has been a judge for eighteen years,” California senator Diane Feinstein, who voted pro-Mukasey, told the Times. “Maybe he likes to consider the facts before he makes a decision.” Yeaaah. We still wouldn't go surfing with him.

Senate Confirms Mukasey By 53-40 [WP]
Mukasey Wins Votes In Senate, Despite Democrats' Doubts [NYT]