Senator Joe Biden, longwinded blowhard and longshot candidate for president:

…said Sunday the attorney general should appoint a special counsel to investigate the CIA’s destruction of videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists. He cited Michael Mukasey’s refusal during confirmation hearings in October to describe waterboarding as torture.

As the Washington Post reported yesterday (two items down), key Democrats were briefed about the use of waterboarding in advance and were all for it (before they were against it.)

Mukasey’s Justice Department and the CIA’s internal watchdog announced Saturday they would conduct a joint inquiry into the matter. That review will determine whether a full investigation is warranted. “He’s the same guy who couldn’t decide whether or not waterboarding was torture and he’s going to be doing this investigation,” said Biden, who noted that he voted against making Mukasey the country’s top law enforcer.

Exactly who couldn’t decide, Senator?

“I just think it’s clearer and crisper and everyone will know what the truth is … if he appoints a special counsel, steps back from it,” said Biden, D-Del.

That view was not shared fellow Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said Congress can get to the bottom of the matter. “I don’t think there’s a need for a special counsel, and I don’t think there’s a need for a special commission,” he said. “It is the job of the intelligence committees to do that.”

Rockefeller knows better because he was included in the 2002 briefing, knew all about waterboarding, and voiced no disapproval.

Rockefeller certainly can’t fault Biden for politicizing the War on Terror, however. After all, it was Rockefeller who wrote the infamous memo on how to do just that.

As for torture, perhaps the Senate can vote that any speech by Biden during judicial confirmation hearings that exceeds three minutes be defined as such.