46 days ago, George Bush nominated Michael Mukasey to be the next Attorney General of the United States.  The Democrats have dragged their feet in the process of confirming the well-qualified judge in order to thow spears at the Bush administration over the appropriateness of waterboarding as an interrogation technique in the war on terror. 

Today, however, a signal was sent by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein and New York's Chuck Schumer that they will indeed vote to pass Mukasey out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joining presumably all of the other Republicans on the committee, on to a full confirmation vote on the Senate floor.  Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy said this afternoon that it is his intention to hold the vote Tuesday.

We'll see how serious the Democrats are, however, about the necessity of speedy confirmation of upper level Cabinet positions, becuase Senate rules do allow for any member of the committee to place a hold on the nominee, pushing back the vote a week.  Leahy has stated he would prefer that not happen, but we'll see if MoveOn.org and the left-wing blogosphere has more influence than Leahy. 

It is ridiculous that this nomination has been slow-walked this long, and if another stall stunt is pulled on Tuesday, it will only hurt the Democrats with the American people.