So says Bill Kristol:
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey is the leading candidate to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. President Bush is expected to announce the nomination as early as Monday.Mukasey, 66, was nominated as a federal district judge for the Southern District of New York in 1988 by Ronald Reagan, and served until September 2006 with great distinction. Mukasey, widely viewed as one of the country's top trial judges, presided over important trials including the 1995 New York City terror trial of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven co-defendants, who were convicted and received lengthy jail terms. In an unusual statement, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, upon reviewing and upholding the judge's work, noted that Mukasey had "presided with extraordinary skill and patience, assuring fairness to the prosecution and to each defendant and helpfulness to the jury. His was an outstanding achievement in the face of challenges far beyond those normally endured by a trial judge."
Some of my fellow conservatives will be disappointed that the nominee won't be former Solicitor General Ted Olson. Olson would be a superb AG--and there is a case for nominating Olson, and inviting a Senate confirmation fight over issues of legal philosophy and executive power. There is also a case, though, for nominating an AG equally as first-rate as Olson, but one who'll be easily confirmed--and who will, I believe, come to judgments similar to Olson's on key issues of executive power and the war on terror.
One might have preferred a good fight over the AG post, but I think that the interests of justice - especially during wartime - take precedence over political games. And so, if we can get a good AG without a bruising fight, then that is ok by me. Of course, the leftwingers will go ballistic no matter what - anyone other than the Ramsay Clark is unacceptable as AG, to our friends on the left. But at first glance it doesn't look like the left will be able to gin up enough opposition to make a fight out of this. On the other hand, if the left does prove strong enough to pick a fight, then we'll have our base-rallying battle without our having played political games, so its all good.
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