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Michael Mukasey
Bush: No Attorney General if Not Mukasey
Bush: No Attorney General if Not Mukasey
2007-11-02
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush sought to save Michael Mukasey's troubled nomination for attorney general Thursday, defending the retired judge's refusal to say whether he considers waterboarding torture and warning of a leaderless Justice Department if Democrats don't confirm him.
"If the Senate Judiciary Committee were to block Judge Mukasey on these grounds, they would set a new standard for confirmation that could not be met by any responsible nominee for attorney general," Bush said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
"That would guarantee that America would have no attorney general during this time of war," the president said.
Mukasey declines to call water-boarding torture
The attorney general nominee declines to call water-boarding torture, as Democrats on Senate panel had sought.
By Richard B. Schmitt
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 31, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Atty. Gen.-designate Michael B. Mukasey, adopting a middle ground on an issue that has become central to his nomination, said coercive interrogation methods, including a form of simulated drowning, were "over the line" and "repugnant." But he declined to say whether he thought so-called water-boarding was a form of torture that would be illegal in all cases.
Senate hearings on Mukasey nomination
Senate hearings on Mukasey nomination
Democrats prepares to install defender of torture, illegal spying as attorney general
By Bill Van Auken
WSWS
20 October 2007
This week’s Senate hearings on the nomination of Michael Mukasey as US attorney general made clear that the Democratic leadership is preparing to install as the country’s chief law enforcement official a right-wing former judge who backs the illegal methods of the Bush administration in its so-called war on terror, including torture and domestic spying.
