Following up on widely reported rumors yesterday, the White House is poised to announce that Michael Mukasey, a former judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, will be nominated to replace Alberto Gonzales as the Attorney General. The announcement may come as early as this morning.
The nomination of Mukasey, considered an authority on national security issues, could come as early as this morning, the sources said. The White House was already seeking over the weekend to tamp down concern in the conservative legal world about Mukasey’s views, assuring allies that he shares Bush’s views on executive power and the need for strong action against terrorists.
In picking Mukasey, Bush would sidestep the uproar that would have erupted in the Senate had he chosen one of the early front-runners, former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson. Some conservatives made clear their puzzlement that Bush was passing over one of their favorites for someone who has been praised by Senate liberals and their allies.
But the White House apparently decided that Mukasey is conservative enough, and that it is important to restore confidence in the Justice Department as quickly as possible, with a choice that could garner bipartisan support. The department has been in turmoil under Alberto R. Gonzales, the Bush confidant whose firing of nine U.S. attorneys and the ensuing controversy led to his resignation last month.
The president’s goal, apparently, was to find a “confirmable” nominee, and Mukasey seems to fit the bill. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) released a statement last night, describing Mukasey as “the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House.” He added, “[H]e’s a lot better than some of the other names mentioned and he has the potential to become a consensus nominee.”
Indeed, this seems to be the overwhelming attitude among Bush administration critics. Senate Dems appear relieved, the progressive Alliance for Justice finds Mukasey tolerable, and People for the American Way’s Ralph Neas said, “He seems like a bona fide conservative Republican, not a right-wing ideologue. He seems like someone who would attract strong bipartisan support and who could help restore public confidence in the Department of Justice.” What’s more, Glenn Greenwald explained in an important post yesterday that Mukasey’s rulings in the Padilla trial in 2002 and 2003 offer some encouragement about his willingness to stand up to the administration.
The right, meanwhile, remains divided.
In an effort to assuage conservative concerns, the White House apparently first leaked word of the Mukasey nomination to the Weekly Standard, and Bill Kristol endorsed the nominee online Saturday night.
That may not be enough to please the GOP base, which wanted to see Ted Olson get the nod. There’s been quite a bit of grumbling on the right since Kristol’s piece ran, and the Wall Street Journal noted “some conservatives already labeling Mukasey as ‘Harriet,’ a reference to Bush’s ill-advised attempt to put his friend and personal lawyer, Harriet Miers, on the Supreme Court.”
But as we talked about yesterday, it’s hard to imagine the right derailing this nomination. In fact, I suspect conservative “concerns” won’t amount to much. Senate Republicans are likely to give Bush what he wants; enough of the institutional right is already falling into place; and Bush only has a year left in office anyway, making Mukasey a short-timer from the outset.
It seems to me that the only real surprise here is that the Bush White House decided to sidestep a confirmation fight with Senate Democrats. Administration officials leaked word that Michael Chertoff was the leading candidate for the job, and Dems balked. Bushies then said Olson was in line for the job, and Dems balked again. The GOP base seemed to be genuinely looking forward to a full-scale, knock-down-drag-out fight over who would run the Justice Department.
And then Bush did something he never does: he backed down. Instead of picking a fight he picked a qualified nominee who’s likely to draw bipartisan support.
One cautionary note: Mukasey may be about the best we can expect from this White House, but that doesn’t make him some kind of moderate. He’s a conservative Republican, playing an active role in Rudy Giuliani’s nutty presidential campaign, and Senate Dems need to scrutinize his record carefully. For that matter, the Justice Department, decimated by Gonzales’ corruption and incompetence, still owes lawmakers quite a bit of information about unresolved scandals. Getting cooperation from Mukasey should be an important part of the process.
That said, all in all, I look at this as a rare victory over an obstinate White House.