Mukasey Treads Careful Line at Senate Hearing
by PHILIP SHENON
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, promised on Wednesday to block political meddling at the Justice Department but did not distance himself from the Bush administration’s most controversial antiterrorism policies.
Appearing at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, walked a careful line. He tried to assure lawmakers that he would be far more independent of the White House than the previous attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, while not backing away from many of the disputed policies that Mr. Gonzales advocated on Mr. Bush’s behalf.
Although Mr. Mukasey disappointed Democrats by not answering many questions about those polices, senators from both parties suggested at the end of a day of testimony that he was all but certain to be confirmed. The tone of the hearing, which will continue Thursday, was polite and cordial, with Mr. Mukasey answering questions in a calm, even voice and smiling occasionally at a senator’s turn of phrase.
Democratic senators welcomed Mr. Mukasey’s promise that he would impose new rules to limit contacts between political figures and the Justice Department. He also said he would not link personnel decisions to political loyalties and would demand that all of the department’s hiring be done “on the basis of competence and ability and dedication and not based on whether somebody’s got an ‘R’ or a ‘D’ next to their names.”
Those remarks were clearly meant to distance Mr. Mukasey from the political scandals that engulfed the department during the tenure of Mr. Gonzales, who dismissed several United States attorneys around the country last year for what appeared to be political reasons.
(Continued here.)
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, promised on Wednesday to block political meddling at the Justice Department but did not distance himself from the Bush administration’s most controversial antiterrorism policies.
Appearing at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, walked a careful line. He tried to assure lawmakers that he would be far more independent of the White House than the previous attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, while not backing away from many of the disputed policies that Mr. Gonzales advocated on Mr. Bush’s behalf.
Although Mr. Mukasey disappointed Democrats by not answering many questions about those polices, senators from both parties suggested at the end of a day of testimony that he was all but certain to be confirmed. The tone of the hearing, which will continue Thursday, was polite and cordial, with Mr. Mukasey answering questions in a calm, even voice and smiling occasionally at a senator’s turn of phrase.
Democratic senators welcomed Mr. Mukasey’s promise that he would impose new rules to limit contacts between political figures and the Justice Department. He also said he would not link personnel decisions to political loyalties and would demand that all of the department’s hiring be done “on the basis of competence and ability and dedication and not based on whether somebody’s got an ‘R’ or a ‘D’ next to their names.”
Those remarks were clearly meant to distance Mr. Mukasey from the political scandals that engulfed the department during the tenure of Mr. Gonzales, who dismissed several United States attorneys around the country last year for what appeared to be political reasons.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
I wonder if anyone did a side-by-side comparison of Gonzales and Mukasey testimony if they would find any real differences ? As I recall, Gonzales promised that he would not be Bush’s lawyer and that he would work with Congress … seems like Muckasey said about the same thing.
Most troubling was his testimony on Thursday where he could … scratch that could … would not state that waterboarding was torture. A simple question requires a simple answer … Mukasey failed and projected an image that he is not strong enough of a man to protect this country. Alas, he will be accepted because the job needs to be filled.
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