Feingold, Kohl, and Mukasey

Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey is on his way to a vote in the Senate.

WASHINGTON -- The Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nomination of Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey to the Senate floor Tuesday, virtually ensuring his confirmation before Thanksgiving.

The 11-8 vote came after two key Democrats accepted his vow to enforce any law Congress might enact against waterboarding.

However, committee Chairman Patrick Leahy called Mukasey's promise disingenuous. "Unsaid, of course, is the fact that any such prohibition would have to be enacted over the veto of this president," said Leahy, D-Vt..

Sen. Chuck Schumer, who suggested Mukasey to the White House in the first place, countered that the nominee's statements against waterboarding and for purging politics from the Justice Department amount to the best deal Democrats could get from the Bush administration.

"If we block Judge Mukasey's nomination and then learn in six months that waterboarding has continued unabated, that victory will seem much less valuable," he wrote in an op-ed in Tuesday's editions of The New York Times.

Announcements of support for Mukasey by Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., virtually assured the former federal judge the majority vote he needed to be favorably recommended by the committee. He was expected to win confirmation handily in the full Senate, where a vote is likely before Thanksgiving.

Both Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl voted AGAINST Mukasey.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Wisconsin's two Democratic senators, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, voted today to oppose the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to be confirmed as the U.S. attorney general.

...Feingold had announced his opposition to Mukasey on Saturday, but Kohl was noncommittal until the vote. In voting against the nomination, Kohl said in a statement:

"It is with great reluctance that I cannot support Judge Mukasey's nomination to be attorney general. He is nominated to be this nation's top law enforcement official. His unwillingness to say what we all know - that waterboarding is torture - sends the wrong signal to the rest of the world, puts our own soldiers at risk, and harms our ability to win the war on terrorism.

"As Judge Mukasey's answers mirror the president's on this issue -- and defy common sense -- we are forced to question his independence as well. The attorney general's loyalties must be to the Constitution, to the American people and to the law. Too much doubt on this point is disqualifying."

Finally, Kohl arrived at a decision.

Feingold was waffling, too, though he did make known his intentions sooner than Kohl. Feingold released the following statement a couple of days ago:

"I will vote against the nomination of Judge Mukasey to be the next Attorney General. This was a difficult decision, as Judge Mukasey has many impressive qualities. He is intelligent and experienced and appears to understand the need to depoliticize the Department of Justice and restore its credibility and reputation.

At this point in our history, however, the country also needs an Attorney General who will tell the President that he cannot ignore the laws passed by Congress. Unfortunately, Judge Mukasey was unwilling to reject the extreme and dangerous theories of executive power that this administration has put forward.

The nation's top law enforcement officer must be able to stand up to a chief executive who thinks he is above the law. The rule of law is too important to our country's history and to its future to compromise on that bedrock principle."

Feingold's "King George" crap again. I don't think his vote is about Mukasey. It's about Bush.

Both Kohl and Feingold know that Mukasey will be the next attorney general and the Dems are OK with that.

Chuck Schumer's op-ed piece in today's New York Times is part of the Dems' carefully choreographed dance.

Dems are dispatched with their marching orders -- oppose Mukasey, support Mukasey, rip Bush.

They got their pound of flesh from Mukasey and now they'll confirm him.