Michael B. Mukasey looks to be a very good pick. Here is Ruth Marcus from the Washington Post:
His selection would be an enormous relief to anyone who cares about the Justice Department and wants to see it recover from the multiple injuries sustained during Gonzales's tenure. He has the independence, stature, intellect and experience to help rehabilitate a battered agency.
In case this praise injures Mukasey's prospects, let me hasten to add: He's no lefty squish. He would not be attorney general in the Marcus administration. But if a Michael Mukasey had been attorney general for the past six years, not only would the Justice Department be in far better shape but the war on terrorism would probably be on a stronger and therefore more sustainable legal footing.
It's nice to see Ms. Marcus admit what is true of most of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary: what they want is a "lefty squish." But she makes an even handed case. Here is the National Review:
Questions have also arisen over some of Mukasey’s rulings in areas other than national security — for example, his denial of asylum to Chinese émigrés who had fled forced abortions. It will be important to study the judge’s record. It will be equally important to bear in mind that a conservative jurist is one who shows restraint — it being no more proper for the judiciary to impose a conservative policy than to impose a liberal one. Mukasey’s 1994 decision in a case called Dong v. Slattery appears to indicate appropriate deference to the asylum policies of the U.S., not an endorsement of China’s noxious one-child policy.
That is what conservatives are looking for, and NR seems to think they might find it in Mukasey. Alberto Gonzales was a disaster. It can't be a hard act to follow.
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