Schumer and Feinstein Back Mukasey

The NY Times reports:

The nomination of Michael B. Mukasey to be attorney general seemed all but assured late this afternoon when Senators Charles E. Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that they would vote in favor of the nominee.

Mr. Schumer announced his support after meeting with Mr. Mukasey this afternoon. “Judge Mukasey is not my ideal choice,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement afterward. “However, Judge Mukasey, whose integrity and independence is respected even by those who oppose him, is far better than anyone could expect from this administration.”

The statement from Mr. Schumer of New York, and late word from the office of Senator Feinstein of California that she too would endorse Mr. Mukasey, virtually assured that he would win the backing of the Judiciary Committee when it meets on Tuesday, and in all probability confirmation by the full Senate.

There are nine Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, versus 10 Democrats. So with the support of Mr. Schumer and Ms. Feinstein, the numbers are on Mr. Mukasey’s side, even though Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermonter who heads the Judiciary Committee, this afternoon became the fifth Democrat on the panel to announce that he would vote against the nominee.

Mr. Schumer said his decision had been “extremely difficult,” and that a big factor was Mr. Mukasey’s opinion, conveyed to him this afternoon, that “were Congress to pass a law banning certain interrogation techniques, we would clearly be acting within our constitutional authority.”

The responses of Mr. Mukasey, a former federal judge from New York City, to committee questions about the definition of torture in interrogating suspected terrorists, and the bounds of presidential authority, have been the main obstacles to his cause.

For Mr. Leahy, those questions have not been satisfactorily answered.

“I like Michael Mukasey; I wish that I could support his nomination,” Mr. Leahy said this afternoon in Montpelier, Vt. “But I cannot.”

The senator went on to say that “no American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture.”

The four other committee Democrats who have announced their opposition are Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. But it seems clear now that there is not enough Democratic opposition to be fatal to the nomination.

The declarations of Senators Feinstein and Schumer would be enough to combine with the votes of the body’s 49 Republicans to win the nomination for Mr. Mukasey, barring some startling turn of events in the next several days.

Another committee Democrat, Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, said today that he was undecided. “He may be the best nominee we can get from this administration,” Mr. Feingold said, calling Mr. Mukasey “a marked improvement” over former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

The remaining two Democrats on the panel — Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland — have yet to state their positions in advance of the committee vote.

All four Democrats running for president have said they will vote against Mr. Mukasey. In addition to Mr. Biden, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut have said they will vote “no.”

President Bush showed his concern by campaigning again today for his embattled nominee, envisioning a “fight on the Senate floor coming next week,” and declaring that Mr. Mukasey must win for the good of the country.

“He’s a good man, he’s a fair man, he’s an independent man, and he’s plenty qualified to be the attorney general,” Mr. Bush said at the airport in Columbia, S.C. “And I strongly urge the United States Senate to confirm this man, so that I can have an attorney general to work with to protect the United States of America from further attack.”

Mr. Bush spoke just before heading to a campaign fund-raiser for Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Judiciary Committee, who is running for re-election.

Mr. Bush began his campaign to save the candidacy of Mr. Mukasey on Thursday, defending him in a speech and in an Oval Office interview, where he complained that Mr. Mukasey was “not being treated fairly” on Capitol Hill.