President Bush’s choice of Michael Mukasey as the next attorney general won early praise Monday, but Democrats appeared ready to take their time on a confirmation hearing until the administration plays ball on subpoenaed documents that it continues to withhold.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said the White House’s willingness to comply with outstanding subpoenas on its program of eavesdropping on suspected terrorists, as well as the recent U.S. attorney firings, would have a direct impact on the timeframe for a Mukasey confirmation.
“Our focus now will be on securing the relevant information we need so we can proceed to schedule fair and thorough hearings,” Leahy said in a statement.
Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), ranking Republican on the Judiciary panel, expressed hope that “we don’t get bogged down into preconditions on the nomination with respect to certain pending requests.” Installing new senior leadership at the Justice Department has become even more crucial, Specter added, in light of multiple vacancies among senior staff and shaken morale at the agency.
Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), a senior leadership and Judiciary member, suggested that White House counsel Fred Fielding meet with Democrats in the coming days to discuss subpoenaed documents with an eye to moving Mukasey quickly through the process.
“There are concerns about those documents,” Schumer told reporters. “We’re not dropping those concerns but hopefully there can be a sit-down where an agreement is reached, maybe as part and parcel of a Mukasey confirmation.”
This should be very interesting. There is absolutely no reason to hurry Michael Mukasey’s confirmation. As for Specter’s lame comment, Attorney General Gonzales resigned all on his own. The timing was picked by him and his Administration pals, not Congress. The wholesale resignations of the entire upper eschelon of the DOJ were their own doing – running from trouble. There are any number of outstanding subpoenas, justly issued, unjustly stonewalled. What possible reason should Congress have for confirming someone who will simply pick up where Gonzales left off with the sobpoenas? Bush will, of course, come out screaming, accusing Congress of "blackmailing" him. What I hope is that the Congressional Leaders will respond, "Yes, that’s exactly right. You comply with the law, and we’ll consider your nominee." Bush wants to blame this on Congress. Karl Rove’s "U.S. Attorney Plan" is to blame – not Congress. In fact, I hope they do the same thing with the Iraq War – vote against funding until Bush produces a bill that’s reasonable. Let him jump up and down and get red in the face. Let Cheney and Rice go stumping on one of their campaigns. No Democratic Congressman is going to lose in 2008 because he/she didn’t cave in to Bush. If I could be Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, I would say to the Democratic Congressmen, "Vote your conscience and the wishes of your constituents. That’s what you were elected to do. We are not going to present a bill for Bush to veto. We will wait for the President to give us a bill that fits the wishes of the American people and we’ll vote for it." That’s the only way to deal with Bush. If he tries to fund the war by going around Congress, it’s his business, Take him to court. That’s where he needs to be anyway…
And if it means that we have Congress constantly in session for the rest of Bush’s term to block him making recess decisions, that’ll be fine. Enough is enough…
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