Bush Taps Mukasey As Attorney General

President Nominates Retired Federal Judge To Replace Alberto Gonzales

(CBS/AP)  President Bush, seeking to avert a possible lengthy confirmation fight with Senate Democrats, chose Michael B. Mukasey Monday to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"Judge Mukasey is clear-eyed about the threat our nation faces," Mr. Bush said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mukasey, a retired federal judge who has handled terrorism cases for more than a decade, would become Mr. Bush's third attorney general. The president said that as chief judge of the busy U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mukasey presided over high-profile national security cases.

"He knows what it takes to fight this war effectively and he knows how to do it in a manner consistent with our laws and our Constitution," Mr. Bush said, standing next to Mukasey in the Rose Garden.

Mr. Bush urged the Senate to quickly confirm Mukasey.

Mukasey oversaw the convictions of the blind sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman, and 11 others in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. More recently, he supported the president's detention of Jose Padilla as an "enemy combatant" but rejected arguments that the al Qaeda sympathizer be denied a lawyer.

If he gets a nod from the Senate, Mukasey would take charge of a Justice Department where morale is low following months of investigations into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and Gonzales' sworn testimony on the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program.

Mukasey said he was honored to be Mr. Bush's nominee to take the helm of the department.

"My finest hope and prayer at this time is that if confirmed I can give them the support and the leadership they deserve," he said.

"I look forward to meeting with members of Congress in the days ahead and, if confirmed, to working with Congress to meeting our nation's challenges," Mukasey said, just before shaking the president's hand and walking back with him into the Oval Office.

It won't be a cakewalk, but Mukasey will likely win Senate confirmation, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss.

New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, who led the charge to oust Gonzales, said that while Mukasey "is certainly conservative," he "seems to be the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House - our most important criteria."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he believes the president listened to Congress and decided against a more partisan replacement for Gonzales. He said Mukasey had "strong professional credentials and a reputation for independence."

"A man who spent 18 years on the federal bench surely understands the importance of checks and balances and knows how to say no to the president when he oversteps the Constitution," said Reid, D-Nev. "But there should be no rush to judgment. The Senate Judiciary Committee must carefully examine Judge Mukasey's views on the complex legal challenges facing the nation."

In picking Mukasey, the president bowed to pressure from Democrats, who had threatened to fight the nomination of any conservative insider, adds Orr.

Last week, top Democrats specifically warned against naming former Solicitor General Ted Olson, who was thought to be at the top of the president's list.

The White House, however, denied that Mr. Bush chose Mukasey to avoid a battle in the Senate.

"It's not the president who is looking for a fight. The Senate Democrats have made the Department of Justice their cause celebre for the past several months and they have decided that that's where they wanted to fight," Perino said. "If they decide to make an issue about this nomination, that will be at their feet and they're going to have to explain that to the American people. ... We're not looking for a fight."

Perino dodged a question about whether the president saw Mukasey as a consensus nominee. "I think what he is is a very solid nominee," she said.

Perino said Mukasey will "bring fresh perspective" to the Justice Department and to the president, reports CBS News correspondent Peter Maer.

Mukasey currently serves as a judicial adviser to GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. Perino said that if Mukasey is confirmed, he will sever ties with the Giuliani campaign. Perino said that Mr. Bush offered the nomination to Mukasey on Friday, and he accepted.

Bush critics contended the Mukasey nomination was evidence of Mr. Bush's weakened political clout as he heads into the final 15 months of his presidency. The president's supporters say Mukasey has impeccable credentials, is a strong, law-and-order jurist, especially on national security issues, and will restore confidence in the Justice Department.

Mukasey has drawn lukewarm reviews from some members of the GOP's right flank. Some legal conservatives and Republican activists have expressed reservations about Mukasey's legal record and past endorsements from liberals, and were drafting a strategy to oppose his confirmation.

William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, said some of his fellow conservatives are upset that Olson, the former solicitor general, who represented Mr. Bush before the Supreme Court in the contested 2000 election, was not chosen.

Mukasey, chosen in large part for his experience in national security matters, noted the threat of terrorism in his brief remarks. "Thirty five years ago, our foreign adversaries saw widespread devastation as a deterrent," he said. "Today, our fanatical enemies see it as a divine fulfillment."

Mr. Bush gave a quick, final nod to the departed attorney general, Gonzales, who resigned after months of turmoil and accusations of mismanagement.

"I've known Al and his family for more than a decade," Mr. Bush said. "He's a dear friend and a trusted adviser."

Until a new attorney general is confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Bush said, Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler will serve as acting attorney general. Keisler oversaw the Bush administration's lengthy legal fight over the rights of terrorism war-era prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Keisler had announced his resignation from the department in early September. He had been nominated by Mr. Bush earlier in the year for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Senate has not acted on Keisler's nomination.

Mr. Bush said that Keisler had agreed to stay on at the Justice Department, which will allow Solicitor General Paul Clement to focus on his duties as the government's chief advocate as the Supreme Court nears the opening of its new fall term.

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[flreason]

Posted by j-whitman at 04:24 PM : Sep 17, 2007

Please excuse my OCD, but it''s spelled "Libyan" not "Lybian." God Bless the Untied Tastes. ;)

[pepperp1]

who are our troops fighting for in Iraq ? - why were the voices of so many of our military generals (Shinseki, Zinni etc) rejected or removed when questioning the Iraq war strategy crafted, promoted and implemented by a handful of Zionists war mongers?




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by king77shaw at 07:33 PM : Sep 17, 2007
+ report abuse

Absolutely something that needs discussion, it is not just those mentioned but many of the groups like Freedom Watch, Swift Boats, News organiations were funded by like minded men. What is the Agenda, why the secrecy, the attack on Carter and his book was rabid, why? And why the reckless desire for policies, that are not in Americas Interest and anti will of the People.

[feelfree1]

veteran71,

Good one!

[king77shaw]

Posted by socrates392 at 05:14 PM : Sep 17, 2007

I did not say all but are some Jews in postions of power acting in Israel''s best interest or the United States best interest? - for example, take the Pentagon''s Defense Policy Board which is run by hawkish, right wing Zionists, many of whom have dual Israeli-American citzenship:

Richard Perle - chairman of the Pentagon''s Defense Policy Board. Chief architect of the Iraq war.

Paul Wolfowitz - member of Perle''s Defense Policy Board, Chief architect of the Iraq war.

Douglas Feith - Under Secretary of Defense and Policy Advisor at the Pentagon. Feith is a pro-Israel extremist and is closely associated with the extremist group, the Zionist Organization of America. Chief architect of the Iraq war.

Kenneth Adelman - sits on the Pentagon''s Defense Policy Board under Perle, and is another extremist pro-Israel advisor. Chief architect of the Iraq war.
I. Lewis Scooter Libby - Vice President Dikk Cheney''s former Chief of Staff. The chief pro-Israel Jewish advisor to Cheney.

James Schlesinger - also sits on the Pentagon''s Defense Policy Board under Perle and is another extremist pro-Israel advisor.

who are our troops fighting for in Iraq ? - why were the voices of so many of our military generals (Shinseki, Zinni etc) rejected or removed when questioning the Iraq war strategy crafted, promoted and implemented by a handful of Zionists war mongers?

[cassandragop]

Politics make strange bedfellows. This little Jewgirl is off to slay the dragon from a softer bed.
Zai gezunt.

[feelfree1]

king77shaw,

Thank you for providing some background on this Zionist collaborator.

www.zeitgeistmovie.com

[feelfree1]

Re: "William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, said some of his fellow conservatives are upset that Olson, the former solicitor general, who represented Mr. Bush before the Supreme Court in the contested 2000 election, was not chosen."

William Kristol, PNAC Uber-Zionist stool-sample, and apologist and sponsor of the illegal war of aggression against Iraq and elsewhere, should be explaining his opinions before a war crimes tribunal.

The opinions of this goose-stepping, fascistic, arse-licking coward have no place in American politics.

[nmfit]

I find it interesting that Bush seems to believe that the proper qualification for attorney general is the willingness to fight terrorism; because, for years he''s maintained that terroism is not a police activity but a military one. Last I looked, the attorney general is law officer not a military general.

[cassandragop]

mudrose... "I would hardly say that 3.3 hours of billing time constitutes defending the terrorists that blew up the plane over Lockerbey."
What is the threshold for being a terrorist-defender as opposed to being an innocent stooge? 10.7 hours? 28 hours?
Freddy was wrong on this one. Lawyers can and often do excuse themselves from cases they find morally repehensible.
His acceptance is another example of the new Conservative Republican talk show morality. If you do it for money, it''s okay. Trumps all other considerations. Barry Goldwater, Dwight Eisenhower and Robert Taft are probably whirling in their graves.

[j-whitman]

Lars,,,, Isn''t that what insurgents yell as they are shooting at our troops ?? God is great ?????

[j-whitman]

mudrose,,,, However you spin it,, Thompson thought nothing of making money from defending Lybian terrorism.

[socrates392]

do not make my comments lightly or out of hate - I think I''''m raising a valid point ... is the American collective conscious being manipulated to hate and thus wage war with the Arab world because so many of our institutions are coming under a disproportionately Zionist influence? If so, is this healthy for America? Instead of calling me names, address my basic premise with fact ..

Posted by king77shaw at 04:24 PM : Sep 17, 2007

What is your basic premise? Many elected and appointed officials are Jewish, ergo they do the bidding of Israel, ergo the US government is unduely influenced by Israel? Did I get that about right?

This whole chain of reasoning rests on your assumption that American citizens who happen to be Jewish are incapable of acting in the best interests of America. By definition they are traitors that think only of Israel and not America. That is a false premise. So your whole string of reasoning unravels.

[jimfinster]

Who cares. Soon the whole corrupt lying bunch of them will be out.

[mudrose-2009]

Giving advice as to "venue" Witless is not defending terrorism. It''s advising collegues what court to try terrorists. You are as Witless as ever. But we all knew that. Keep up the propoganda. Next you''ll tell us the ACLU is a religious organization.

[lars008-2009]

Posted by j-whitman at 04:27 PM : Sep 17, 2007

hahahahaha

Demonic-rats find god

GOD IS GREAT: DEMS GOT RELIGION, SAYS MAG...
Leveling the Praying Field
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1642649,00.html

[lars008-2009]

I do not make my comments lightly or out of hate - I think I''''m raising a valid point ... is the American collective conscious being manipulated to hate and thus wage war with the Arab world because so many of our institutions are coming under a disproportionately Zionist influence? If so, is this healthy for America? Instead of calling me names, address my basic premise with fact ..
Posted by king77shaw at 04:24 PM : Sep 17, 2007

buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz thanks for playing,,,

nope and your are wrong haji,,,,

bin laden is releasing the tapes of the 19 suicide mnurderers, 6 so far have been released,,,

now bin laden would not sacrifice these 19 for such a conspiracy to destroy fascist nazi terrorislam would he,,, he would not get his 72 virgins if he did that,,, lol ,,, terrorislam has very specific rules on such things,,, reread the queer-an haji,,,

hahahaha

[j-whitman]

mudrose,,,,, Now even McCain flip-floped on his religion..... Shamefull how republicans love to use religion to get elected

[j-whitman]

mudrose,,,, Your defending Thompson for his part in aiding Lybian Terrorists ???? ---- You must be a terrorist sympathizer

[king77shaw]

I do not make my comments lightly or out of hate - I think I''m raising a valid point ... is the American collective conscious being manipulated to hate and thus wage war with the Arab world because so many of our institutions are coming under a disproportionately Zionist influence? If so, is this healthy for America? Instead of calling me names, address my basic premise with fact ..