Leahy expects Bush nominee Mukasey to be confirmed

[sabra]

Source: reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Tuesday he expects retired judge Michael Mukasey to be confirmed as U.S. attorney general, succeeding Alberto Gonzales who resigned under pressure.

On the eve of the Mukasey's confirmation hearing before Chairman Patrick Leahy's panel, the senator also said he believes Mukasey, unlike Gonzales, would be independent of the White House.

"There are still some within the administration that want the Department of Justice just to be a political arm of the White House," Leahy said.

"I want that to change. I think he can change it," Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, told reporters after a private meeting with the former federal judge.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1618775820071016

[babylonsister]

1. Cripes. Who turned Leahy? He originally complained the loudest

about this nom. And doesn't this mean anything? I'm really disappointed, and doubly disappointed I keep trying to retain faith in these people who supposedly represent us.

Detentions to Be Top Topic for Mukasey


LARA JAKES JORDAN | October 15, 2007 12:25 PM EST | AP


WASHINGTON — As the chief federal trial judge in Manhattan, Michael Mukasey approved secret warrants allowing government roundups of Muslims in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Six years later, the man President Bush wants to be attorney general acknowledged that the law authorizing those warrants "has its perils" in terrorism cases and urged Congress to "fix a strained and mismatched legal system."

Mukasey's caution about the material witness law probably will please Democrats who control the Senate Judiciary Committee. At confirmation hearings set to begin Wednesday, they plan to press the retired federal judge about the Bush administration's terrorist detention policy.

The committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, long has criticized the government's use of the warrants. They allowed the FBI to detain, without charges, an estimated 70 people, all but one of whom was a Muslim, as witnesses after the terrorist attacks in 2001.

Leahy, D-Vt., is expected to question Mukasey about this and other issues the senator has described as arising "from this administration's abuse of secrecy and expansion of executive power."

A fellow Democrat on the committee, New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, said he supports Mukasey but disagrees with some of his positions on terrorist detentions.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071015/attor...

[jgraz]

3. Wanted: One Opposition Party

Oh, wait...we're in the MAJORITY.

Wake me up when the Dems start acting like it. :boring:

[babylonsister]

4. That's really hard to remember at times; we're the majority but why

in hell aren't they responding as if we are? I'm not getting it...

[pennylane100]

5. He is making the best of bad options.

Bush can keep the Ted Olsen wannabe, and supposed member of the federalist gang, as our acting AG or the domocrats can get a somewhat better choice. This guy has a little more respect for the constitution than your average fundie neocon.

[Zhade]

6. Uh, see post #1 - he has NO respect for the Constitution!

NT!

[atreides1]

2. That's Just Great

Another Gonzales as AG!