Mukasey clears Senate panel, 11-8
The attorney general nominee is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate as early as next week. Criticism continues.
WASHINGTON - Retired federal judge Michael Mukasey is expected to be confirmed as attorney general as early as next week after the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday gave his nomination the go-ahead.
The panel's 11-8 vote came after two leading Democrats joined nine Republicans to advance Mukasey's nomination to the full Senate. The eight other Judiciary Democrats said they opposed Mukasey because he refused to define waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, as illegal torture.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) and Charles E. Schumer (D., N.Y.) said yesterday that they oppose waterboarding but felt compelled to break with their party out of concern that the Justice Department would be left without a permanent leader. President Bush has threatened to leave an acting attorney general in charge if the Senate rejects his nominee.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said yesterday that he would oppose Mukasey because of the waterboarding controversy. Even so, Reid is expected to schedule a confirmation vote as early as next week.
Mukasey, an 18-year veteran of the federal bench, promised several senators he would follow a ban on waterboarding if Congress passed pending legislation. Congress has not explicitly banned waterboarding, but has prohibited "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment.
Schumer said he believed that Mukasey demonstrated "more openness to ending the practices we abhor" than did the administration's two previous attorney generals, Alberto R. Gonzales and John Ashcroft.
Mukasey did not win over other Democrats. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont dismissed Mukasey's pledge to uphold a waterboarding ban, saying any such ban would have to be enacted over the president's veto.
Until last week, Democrats and Republicans had expected Mukasey's nomination to sail through the Senate, because he had been held up as a compromise candidate who had support from several top Democrats. But Mukasey stirred opposition when he declared waterboarding "repugnant" and possibly "over the line" but declined to take a position on its legality.
Mukasey said he was concerned about rendering an opinion that would expose government officials who had approved or used the technique to possible legal liability. Bush has said the United States does not torture, but he has refused to say whether American interrogators have used waterboarding.
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Judiciary Republican, called Mukasey's assertion that he did not know the details of classified interrogation practices a "flimsy excuse." But Specter said he concluded that Mukasey "went about as far as he could go" in explaining his stance.
In a joint letter, a group of 21 former military and intelligence officials this week urged the full Senate to press Mukasey to be more explicit or to delay his confirmation indefinitely.
"Otherwise," the letter said, "there is considerable risk of continued use of the officially sanctioned torture techniques that have corrupted our intelligence services, knocked our military off the high moral ground, severely damaged our country's standing in the world, and exposed U.S. military and intelligence people to similar treatment."
While the full Senate is expected to confirm Mukasey, Reid predicted a "really heavy vote against him" by Democrats.
Reid also rejected criticism that Democrats had failed to unify in opposition to Mukasey, saying, "We're working with the slim majority we have, doing the very best we can."