President Bush already lost one nominee to head the Homeland Security Department (a position I and others like to call the "Defender of the Homeland"). Is he in risk of losing another? The trio of David Johnston, Neil A. Lewis and Douglas Jehl do the tough reporting in a story in Saturday's New York Times.

Michael Chertoff, who has been picked by President Bush to be the homeland security secretary, advised the Central Intelligence Agency on the legality of coercive interrogation methods on terror suspects under the federal anti-torture statute, current and former administration officials said this week.

Depending on the circumstances, he told the intelligence agency, some coercive methods could be legal, but he advised against others, the officials said.

Mr. Chertoff's previously undisclosed involvement in evaluating how far interrogators could go took place in 2002 and 2003 when he headed the Justice Department's criminal division. The advice came in the form of responses to agency inquiries asking whether C.I.A. employees risked being charged with crimes if particular interrogation techniques were used on specific detainees.

Johnston, Lewis and Jehl indicate that Chertoff should have no trouble being confirmed by the Senate regardless of these policy recommendations. Most likely the Democrats will reserve their most stringent attacks for Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales who held a much more central role in crafting America's torture policy.