WASHINGTON — Retired New York federal judge Michael Mukasey is likely to win quick Senate approval as attorney general, two key Democrats said Tuesday after meeting with him on the eve of his confirmation hearings.
Nominated by President Bush to take over a Justice Department shaken by controversy over anti-terror tactics and charges of political interference, Mukasey will face tough questions in the hearings, which begin today and could continue through the week.
But in visits on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, he appeared to have assured two of Bush’s harshest critics that he would be no “yes man” to the White House. That’s a charge several senators leveled at the recently resigned attorney general, Alberto Gonzales.
“I see a man who has the potential to clean up the Department of Justice,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Judiciary Committee chairman, said after meeting with Mukasey. “From what I’ve seen, I would expect him to be confirmed.”
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who called for the resignation of Gonzales and recommended Mukasey, said he believes the 66-year-old New Yorker has integrity and independence.
“I asked, ‘Would you be willing to look the president in the eye and say no’ if you thought what they wanted the Justice Department to do was either not legal or not ethical?”’ Schumer said. “Without batting an eye, he said, ‘Absolutely.’”
Other senators were being more cautious.
“We should not instinctively support someone blindly. We’ve been burned by doing that in the past,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Lawmakers of both parties say they don’t have to agree with Mukasey on every issue. But pressured by their political bases, they’ll press him for assurances of independence from the White House.
Also on the agenda for the hearings are pointed questions, mostly from Democrats, about the administration’s legal justification for an eavesdropping program and whether Mukasey would allow a prosecution of any contempt of Congress citations against Bush administration officials who refused to comply with their subpoenas.
Mukasey agreed to conduct his own review of the Office of Legal Counsel’s memos on wiretapping, the National Security Agency, torture and detentions of terror suspects, Schumer said.
Mukasey appears to have won over senators during his visits, Schumer added. “If the hearings go as well as the interviews have, then he will be confirmed by a very large majority,” he said. “I don’t know of a single Democrat who is inclined not to support him.”
Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said that Mukasey faces few, if any, obstacles to confirmation. But Reid has not yet scheduled a vote by the full Senate, his aides said.
Mukasey’s nomination is a political peace offering in the troubled twilight of Bush’s second term. Bush nominated him after Schumer suggested that Mukasey would be a suitable replacement for Gonzales — quieting, for now, the months-long storm over whether the White House improperly influenced the firings of nine federal prosecutors and other matters.
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