Who Is Michael Mukasey and Should He Be Attorney General?

Posted by Steve Benen at 6:09 AM on September 17, 2007.

This post, written by Steve Benen, originally appeared on The Carpetbagger Report

Chasing Attorney General rumors has proven to be rather pointless. Initially, Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was practically already prepping for his confirmation hearings. Then, the White House leaked a short list, sans Chertoff, and Ted Olson was the likely nominee.

Now we have a new front-runner for the job: Michael Mukasey, a former judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, whose name was on the leaked short-list from last week.

The sources said that President Bush is close to announcing his nominee, possibly doing so as early as tomorrow, and that Mukasey has vaulted to the top over other contenders, including former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, whose chances may have been damaged after the Senate's top Democrat vowed to block his confirmation.

One source close to the White House, describing Mukasey as the clear "front-runner," said Bush advisers appear to have decided that "they didn't want a big fight over attorney general" in the Senate, especially when other qualified candidates are also available. The source said Olson, who represented Bush in the Supreme Court fight over the contested 2000 election, would be seen as "very political," despite his outstanding legal credentials.

Another well-connected GOP source, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity in discussing internal White House deliberations, said that Mukasey is "the leading candidate." He described Mukasey -- the former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York -- as a conservative on counterterrorism issues, such as electronic surveillance, and said that he has a solid reputation and is seen by Bush aides as "confirmable."

Oddly enough, Mukasey's principal problem, should he be the nominee, is that he may draw fire from the right, not the left.

For one thing, conservatives wanted Olson, not just because of his record as a conservative ideologue, but also because the right relished a high-profile fight with Senate Democrats over the Attorney General vacancy. Conservatives don't care about "confirmable"; they care about partisan warfare.

But more importantly, the right doesn't perceive Mukasey as "one of them."

"Conservatives might have some serious concerns with Mukasey," said one Republican close to the White House. "He's not well known in the community."

Even worse, the progressive legal community doesn't seem to hate him too much. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been encouraging White House counsel Fred Fielding for a Mukasey nomination, and the Alliance for Justice, a liberal legal group, suggested in 2005 that Mukasey would be a conservative-but-fair Supreme Court nominee.

These are not exactly the kind of accolades conservatives want to hear.

How serious could the right's opposition really be? It's hard to imagine the circumstances that would lead to a full-scale conservative revolt against a Mukasey nomination (a la Miers, Harriet), but there will likely be quite a bit of grumbling. The AP noted that Brian Burch, president of a conservative Catholic-based advocacy group called Fidelis, started getting calls early Saturday from members of his group and other conservative groups who were worried that Bush was getting ready to nominate Mukasey. "His federal judicial record has been at times hostile to the issues that we care and have concern about, like abortion," Burch said.

My hunch is, should Mukasey get the nod, conservative "concerns" won't amount to much. Indeed, it's hard to imagine the circumstances that would lead to a full-scale revolt against a Mukasey nomination (a la Miers, Harriet). Senate Republicans are likely to give Bush what he wants; Bill Kristol has endorsed him in a piece overnight (under a headline that read, "Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General... And conservatives should be happy"); and Bush only has a year left in office anyway, making Mukasey a short-timer from the outset.

I don't want to mischaracterize Mukasey as some kind of reasonable moderate that Dems should embrace. He's a conservative Republican, playing an active role in Rudy Giuliani's nutty presidential campaign.

But at first blush, he does appear to be one of the better nominees we can hope for out of this White House. Stay tuned.

Tagged as: mukasey, giuliani, bush administration, justice department, attorney general

Steve Benen is a freelance writer/researcher and creator of The Carpetbagger Report. In addition, he is the lead editor of Salon.com's Blog Report, and has been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Crooks & Liars, The American Prospect, and the Guardian.