According to CNN, rumor has it that former Chief Judge Michael Mukasey of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a leading contender (or the leading contender) to replace the amoral and incompetent Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.
If this is true, Dems should truly breathe a sigh of relief. While the man is no liberal, he is a true lawyer's lawyer and a staunch upholder of justice and the rule of law. Read about him on Wikipedia here. An excerpt of his bio:
Mukasey attended Columbia (B.A. 1963) and Yale Law School (LL.B. 1967). He practiced law for twenty years in New York City, serving for four years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the federal prosecutor's office in which he worked with Rudolph Giuliani. Later, he was as a member of the New York law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.
In 1987, Mukasey was nominated as a federal judge in Manhattan by President Ronald Reagan. He served in that position for 18 years and was Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York from 2000 to July 2006. During his tenure on the bench, Mukasey presided over the criminal prosecution of Omar Abdel Rahman and El Sayyid Nosair, whom he sentenced to life in prison for a plot to blow up the United Nations and other Manhattan landmarks uncovered during an investigation into the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. During that case, Mukasey spoke out against leaks by law-enforcement officials regarding the facts of the case allegedly aimed at prejudicing potential jurors against the defendants.[1] Chief Judge Mukasey also heard the trial of Jose Padilla, ruling that the U.S. citizen and alleged terrorist could be held as an enemy combatant but was entitled to see his lawyers. Mukasey also was the judge in the litigation between developer Larry Silverstein and several insurance companies arising from the destruction of the World Trade Center. In a 2003 suit, the judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Motion Picture Association of America from enforcing its ban against the distribution of screener copies of films during awards season, ruling that the ban was likely an unlawful restraint of trade unfair to independent filmmakers.
In June 2003, Democratic New York Senator Charles Schumer submitted Mukasey's name, along with four other Republicans or Republican appointees, as a suggestion for President George W. Bush to consider for nomination to the Supreme Court.[2] On the March 18, 2007, episode of Meet the Press, Schumer again suggested Mukasey as a potential Attorney General nominee who, "by [his] reputation and character, shows that [he] put rule of law first."[3]
We should be so lucky as to have him as AG -- by far the best we could hope for under a Bush administration. As former Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York, he oversaw the busiest and perhaps most highly-regarded trial court in the nation. A far cry from a Texas-raised lifelong Bush lackey. He has never served as an executive-branch operative and, while no liberal, would truly be an independent choice this community could live with. Replacing Gonzales with Mukasey would be a huge step toward restoring the credibility and honor of the DOJ.
Just a couple demonstrations of his independent-mindedness and non-Bushie creds:
DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - Manhattan federal Judge Michael M Mukasey rules legality of Pres Bush's designation of Joseph Padilla as enemy combatant may be appealed immediately to higher court, even before he rules on merits of challenge to Padilla's detention
DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - Federal government will seek expedited appeal of Judge Michael B Mukasey's order allowing terrorist suspect Jose Padilla to meet with lawyers challenging his detention as enemy combatant
DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - Judge Michael B Mukasey expresses anger and impatience at Bush administration's new arguments as to why Jose Padilla, terror suspect in military custody since June, should not be able to meet with his lawyers, who are challenging his detention as enemy combatant; government argues that interrogation of Padilla, who is suspected of plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb, could be compromised by allowing lawyers in . . .