Mukasey: AG Nominee

Seeing that today is Constitution Day, it is noteworthy that retired federal judge Michael Mukasey has been nominated to become the next Attorney General.

Normally, I'd say that anyone endorsed by Bill Kristol (and who serves as an advisor of the Giuliani campaign!) should be worthy of extreme skepticism. But Glenn Greenwald weighs in with some details from Mukasey's back story, specifically his role as the presiding judge in the case of Jose Padilla:

Judge Mukasey repeatedly defied the demands of the Bush administration, ruled against them, excoriated them on multiple occasions for failing to comply with his legally issued orders, and ruled that Padilla was entitled to contest the factual claims of the government and to have access to lawyers. He issued these rulings in 2002 and 2003, when virtually nobody was defying the Bush administration on anything, let alone on assertions of executive power to combat the Terrorists. And he made these rulings in the face of what was became the standard Bush claim that unless there was complete acquiescence to all claimed powers by the President, a Terrorist attack would occur and the blood would be on the hands of those who impeded the President...

Stalwart rule of law defender Bruce Fein, in a December 2002 Op-Ed in The Washington Times, called Mukasey's decision a "narrow, prudent, and impeccable decision" and said it "sets a standard to which the wise and honest jurist should repair."

Judge Mukasey's respect for the Constitution and the rule of law should not be overstated...

Mukasey is very smart and independent, not part of the Bush political circle, and -- at least compared to the array of nightmarish alternatives -- it is hard to see him becoming a subservient tool of the White House...

None of this is to say that Mukasey should be confirmed as Attorney General if, as appears to be the case, he is the nominee. There is a long record of rulings that very well may constitute potent grounds for opposing him. He published a recent Op-Ed in the Wall St. Journal on the question of legal rights for terrorist suspects which was reasonable on some points though ultimately inconclusive on the central questions.

Bush was always going to nominate a conservative Republican. But he could have done a lot worse than Mukasey. I don't know if Democrats deserve any credit for standing firm against guys like Ted Olsen and Michael Chertoff, but if so -- thanks.