Arlen Specter: "The president would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law"

And that's stopped him in the past?

:silly:

Specter Says He Will Back AG Nominee

By HOPE YEN – 10 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he is bothered by Michael Mukasey's refusal to say whether waterboarding is torture but will support his nomination for attorney general anyway.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., joins two key Senate Democrats in saying he will back Mukasey because the retired judge has said that if Congress passes a law banning waterboarding, "the president would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law."

"He could have said a lot of things which would have given me more assurances," Specter said. "But he is intelligent; he's really learned in the law. He's strong, ethical, honest beyond any question. He's not an intimate of the president."

"And you have to balance it off with where we are today," said Specter, R-Pa. "The Department of Justice is dysfunctional. It is not performing. And every day that passes, we do not have someone in charge of the investigation against terrorism, the fight against violent crime."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gRcgwPvkKFMU-J9UfiuEDq2Y1HAwD8SN1DCG0

Maybe we will get lucky and Pennsylvania will send either Ed Rendell or Barbara Hafer to replace this old fart in 2010...

need to because it is already against the law to torture per the Geneva convention that is part of the Constitution. Couldn't Bush just veto it?