A U.S. Senate panel has cleared President Bush's pick for attorney general. Michael B. Mukasey now Bush's third pick for the top job. The Senate panel's approval now sets the stage for confirmation by the full Senate possibly as soon as this week.
Two Democrats and nine Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Mukasey's nomination to head embattled Justice Department. Eight other Democrats on the panel, including Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont did not approve Mukasey's confirmation on the grounds that Mukasey refused to say whether waterboarding, a form of interrogation that simulates drowning, amounts to illegal torture.
"I wish that I could support Judge Mukasey's nomination," Leahy said in a Bloomberg report. "But this is an administration that has been acting outside the law."
His detractors also criticized Mukasey's expansive view of executive power. All of the Democratic senators running for president promised to vote against Mukasey and several of the Democrats on the panel carried out their colleagues vow and did so.
Earlier this month Bush defended Mukasey, saying that announcing a legal opinion on waterboarding amounts to giving "the terrorists a window into which techniques we may use and which ones we may not use'' and could put U.S. intelligence agents in "legal jeopardy."
On Tuesday however the White House expressed appreciation for the committee's vote and said Mukasey has "demonstrated that he will be an exceptional attorney general."
Mukasey, 66, a retired federal judge with a long career in New York, was nominated by Bush to replace Alberto Gonzales, who left office in September following a nine-month investigation into allegations he politicized decisions at the Justice Department.
Gonzales' His resignation in August was ignited by widespread suspicion of his lying to Congress on his dismissal of nine federal prosecutors.
One of Mukasey 's first tasks in the role would be to replace the senior Justice Department officials who left during the scandals of the past year.
Georgetown Law Professor Viet Dinh, who worked in the Justice Department during Bush's first term, in office called the process "the control-alt-delete of the Department of Justice -- to reboot the Department of Justice.(AHN)
Two Democrats and nine Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Mukasey's nomination to head embattled Justice Department. Eight other Democrats on the panel, including Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont did not approve Mukasey's confirmation on the grounds that Mukasey refused to say whether waterboarding, a form of interrogation that simulates drowning, amounts to illegal torture.
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