By Keith Perine, CQ Staff

Two Democrats warned Tuesday they will consider blocking Justice Department nominees unless Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey is more forthcoming about harsh interrogation techniques.

On Wednesday, Mukasey will make his first appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee since he was narrowly confirmed by the Senate on Nov. 8.

“I think if there’s a sense that he’s not candid . . . it is going to make the road a little harder for his nominees,” said committee member Sheldon Whitehouse , D-R.I. “It’ll just change the atmosphere around here.”

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill., another member of the committee, also called for more information from Mukasey.

Democrats have been particularly interested in Mukasey’s opinion on whether a simulated drowning interrogation method known as waterboarding amounts to torture.

At his confirmation hearing in October, Mukasey described waterboarding as “repugnant,” but said he could not call it torture without more knowledge about how it was done.

“He’s had plenty of time to be briefed, and now it’s time to tell us what he thinks,” Durbin said.

Durbin, Whitehouse and the other eight committee Democrats sent Mukasey a letter last week on the waterboarding question, in which they said his reluctance to answer has put Mark Filip, President Bush’s nominee for deputy attorney general, “in a difficult position.”

At his own confirmation hearing last month, Filip did not answer the waterboarding question out of deference to Mukasey.

Durbin said Tuesday that Filip and other Justice nominees “will have a much better chance if [Mukasey] answers letters.”

If he continues to sidestep questions about torture, “it’s not good,” Durbin said. “It’s not a good start.

“It’s echoes of a former attorney general who will go unnamed,” Durbin added, apparently referring to Alberto R. Gonzales.

In remarks prepared for Wednesday’s hearing, Mukasey asked the Senate to confirm Filip as well as Bush’s nominee for associate attorney general, the second and third most senior department posts.

In his prepared remarks, Mukasey avoids touchy subjects such as waterboarding or the congressional and Justice Department investigations into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

Democrats are certain to press him not only about those subjects, but also about the administration’s position on pending electronic surveillance legislation as well.