Seriously, I don't know how else to explain Sen. Ted Kennedy's explanation of why he's not going to vote to approve Judge Michael Mukasey's nomination for attorney general.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said Thursday that he intends to oppose the nomination, arguing that Mukasey's unwillingness to answer definitively on the legality of the interrogation method that simulates drowning increases the chances it could be used against U.S. troops.

Is the senior senator from Massachusetts so out of touch that he thinks that if terrorists capture a U.S. soldier they're going to waterboard him? The hypothetical captured soldier should be so lucky, usually they just chop off his head.

It's times like this I ask myself: What would Mary Jo Kopechne say?