I don’t know about you, but as I look back over the last several governors who became president, I’m not anxious for another one. Meanwhile, I’ve seen excellent senators and former vice presidents shoved aside.

It’s not all up to the pols. The electorate needs to get its act together too.

“While not happy with Mukasey’s confirmation, I am even more upset that none of the Senators running for President were present for the vote – again. Perhaps it is time for candidates running for a new office be forced to resign their existing one.”

The presidential candidate senators knew beforehand, within a vote or two, what the outcome was going to be. They knew their votes wouldn’t change the outcome. To make that vote, they probably would’ve had to spend the week in D.C. They have busy schedules, with people all over the primary states expecting them to visit here and speak there. They don’t show up and it hurts their campaigns at a critical time.

Trust me, there was no lack of interest and they are anything but lazy.

Look, it speaks well of the U.S. that senators on the Judiciary Committee and then the full Senate took this matter very seriously. The debate included many strong, well-articulated stands.

All the hubbub preceding the debate, including interviews Mukasey did with individual senators and the 500-plus questions he answered in writing, add up to a kind of indoctrination course. And the debate provided a kind of morality play partly for his benefit.

I’m sure Mukasey watched the debate and heard Democrat after Democrat come down hard on the disappointing and disturbing portions of his testimony. He’s no dummy. I’m sure he gets it that a large, powerful bloc of senators won’t tolerate the kind of rubber-stamp, “I can’t recall” nonsense Gonzales pulled.

I’m sure Mukasey got the message that so many senators and so many ordinary Americans consider waterboarding torture and therefore illegal that he knows he had better not get caught trying to jigger legal “opinions” OK’ing it just to keep his bosses happy.

While not happy with Mukasey’s confirmation, I am even more upset that none of the Senators running for President were present for the vote – again. Perhaps it is time for candidates running for a new office be forced to resign their existing one. It is outrageous that we are paying these 5 Senators for being AWOL so often, & even more so that we accept campaigning as an acceptable excuse. Such a requirement would also keep those who are not really serious about winning out of the race.