Justice Nominee Gets 2 Key Votes From Democrats

(Thursday) November 1, 2007   •   The Web Guy

fein_post.jpgMr. Schumer said Mr. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, had “pledged to enforce such a law and repeated his willingness to leave office rather than participate in a violation of the law.”

Initially welcomed by Democrats and Republicans alike when it was announced in September, Mr. Mukasey’s nomination appeared close to being derailed this week over his repeated refusal to declare to senators that the interrogation technique known as waterboarding was torture. Waterboarding simulates drowning and is reported to have been used by the C.I.A. against a few top leaders of Al Qaeda.

Five Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, including its chairman, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, have announced their intention to oppose the nomination when it comes to a vote before the panel. The vote is now scheduled for Tuesday.

In declaring Friday that he would vote against Mr. Mukasey, Mr. Leahy said that “no American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture.”

“I like Michael Mukasey,” Mr. Leahy added. “I wish that I could support his nomination. But I cannot.”

The White House welcomed the announcement by Mrs. Feinstein and Mr. Schumer, which appeared to give Mr. Mukasey the margin of support he needed to win approval in the Judiciary Committee, which has 10 Democrats and 9 Republicans.

Lawmakers had predicted that if Mr. Mukasey’s nomination was moved to the full Senate, he would easily be confirmed to replace Alberto R. Gonzales, who stepped down in September in the wake of a series of scandals.

“Judge Mukasey is exceptionally qualified and would be an outstanding attorney general,” a White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said late Friday. “He deserves a vote from the full Senate, where we are confident he would be confirmed.”

Mr. Schumer, who had proposed Mr. Mukasey’s name to the White House for the Justice Department post and had initially championed his nomination, was under increasing pressure from all sides this week to make clear where he stood. His meeting with Mr. Mukasey appeared to be a last-minute effort to rescue the nomination.

Mr. Schumer’s role as the main Democratic champion of the nominee had become especially thorny for him when Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, announced this week that he would oppose Mr. Mukasey, while the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, suggested that he, too, would vote against the nomination because of Mr. Mukasey’s unwillingness to label waterboarding as torture.

Democratic Congressional aides said Mrs. Feinstein, who has broken ranks with her party’s leaders in the past, decided earlier in the week that she would support Mr. Mukasey’s nomination and withheld an announcement until Friday, in coordination with Mr. Schumer.

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