Mukasey's Nomination Takes Another Hit As Pressure Increases On Schumer

Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy has come out against the nomination of Michael Mukasey to be the next attorney general, sending a strong signal to the rest of the committee's Democrats that the nomination is in trouble.

That increases the pressure even more on Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who initially endorsed Mukasey's nomination but now says "I'm am going to weigh both sides."

Mukasey's inability to give a straight answer on whether he believes waterboarding constitutes illegal torture has cost him the support of several key Judiciary Committee Democrats. But Schumer is in a bind on this issue, based on comments he made three years ago about the use of torture in extreme cases.

"Take the hypothetical: If we knew that there was a nuclear bomb hidden in an American city and we believed that some kind of torture, fairly severe maybe, would give us a chance of finding that bomb before it went off, my guess is most Americans and most senators, maybe all, would say, ‘Do what you have to do,’” Schumer said at a June 2004 Judiciary Committee hearing.

A few other Judiciary Committee Democrats, including Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Dianne Feinstein of California. Mukasey would likely be confirmed by the full Senate, but Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), says that he will respect the recommendation of the Judiciary Committee, meaning he won't bring up the nomination on the Senate floor if the committee rejects the nomination.

If every Judiciary Democrat votes against the nomination and every Republican votes for Mukasey, the nomination would die on a 9-10 vote.