U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voted to confirm former federal judge Michael Mukasey to be the next U.S. attorney general.

Mukasey was asked specifically during his confirmation hearing, “Is waterboarding torture?” Waterboarding is a form of torture in which the victims lungs are filled with water until they almost drown, and it is the preferred method of torture for the CIA because it does not leave visible marks once completed. Mukasey’s answer, “I think it would be irresponsible of me to discuss particular techniques with which I am not familiar,” was patently ridiculous. The United States has prosecuted people in war crimes tribunals for waterboarding people, and waterboarding has been considered torture since before the Spanish Inquisition. But now it is part of normal interrogation practices.

Before this presidency, there wasn’t even any such thing as being “wrong on torture,” because torture wasn’t even something we debated. Now, torture is not only something we openly debate, but it’s something this nation routinely does and condones.

And we can thank both our Republican senators for allowing the United States to continue torturing people.

Dave Chirayath, Lewiston