Leahy Sets Confirmation Hearings For Attorney General Pick Mukasey
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman yesterday said confirmation hearings for Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, could begin as soon as October 17.
The announcement is a marked shift from Senator Leahy’s stance as recently as two weeks ago, when Mr. Bush announced he had chosen the former federal judge from New York to succeed Alberto Gonzales at the helm of the Justice Department.
Then, Mr. Leahy signaled that he would not schedule confirmation hearings until the White House furnished him with information about the administration’s eavesdropping and interrogation methods. White House legal counsel Fred Fielding had declared that information off-limits under executive privilege, and discussions never progressed.
There was talk that Mr. Leahy would stick to the ultimatum and never give Mr. Mukasey a hearing. But elsewhere in the Democratic caucus, the nominee received high marks and next to no objections. Senator Schumer of New York, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a member of Mr. Leahy’s Judiciary Committee, had suggested Mr. Mukasey to the White House, after all.
