Can Congress redeem itself?

By approving Michael Mukasey as attorney general last night, the Senate confirmed that they lack the ability to take a principled stance on an important, fairly black-and-white issue like torture (I call it black-and-white since most Americans, along with military personnel, don't have any doubt waterboarding is torture). Their lack of moral compass is sad and disheartening; their lack of political sense is simply puzzling.

Chuck Schumer's NYTimes op-ed explaining why he voted in the Senate Judiciary Committee to bring Mukasey's confirmation to the full Senate had its merits-- it's true that the threat of an interim AG was a serious one. Whether Mukasey was confirmed or not, it looked like a lose-lose situation for the American people and for Congress. But by confirming Mukasey, we now not only have an AG whose ability to put an end to torture by our government is suspect, but the Democrats have also thrown away a great deal of political capital to a lame duck president.
This foolish move seems to be following a trend: Democrats' repeatedly dismal attempts to curtail the war make their political gains of last year seem undeserved. Republicans have bafflingly chosen to make the most noncontroversial of issues-- children's healthcare-- into a wedge issue by refusing to support SCHIP. It is no wonder Congress' approval ratings are so low.

If the Congress wants to redeem itself, and show it has any sort of moral compass or political fortitude, it has a few opportunities immediately in front of it. The first would be to reform the alternative minimum tax, in a manner that can survive the president's veto. The second would be stop confirming the president's morally dubious appointments; Mukasey got through, but others such as Julie Myers don't need to. Her display of racial insensitivity is totally inappropriate for someone in charge of immigration and customs enforcement, and given ICE's questionable recent history, the organization clearly needs better leadership than that.

Hopefully our representatives in Washington will realize that standing up to the president, big business, etc., is not only in the nation's best interest, but in their best interests as well.