NPR: Mukasey Vote Scheduled, But His Chances Unclear

Mukasey Vote Scheduled, But His Chances Unclear

It appears that Michael Mukasey will find out Tuesday if the Senate Judiciary Committee thinks he should be the new attorney general of the United States. (Although it's still possible for a committee member to request a delay.) If the committee approves his nomination in the scheduled vote, it will then go to the full Senate.

But, surprisingly, it's now not clear whether it will get that far. When President Bush first announced Mukasey as his replacement for the controversial Alberto Gonzales, conventional wisdom was that, while there might be a few bumps, the confirmation was a sure thing. But Mukasey's dance around the question of whether waterboarding is torture has raised the suspicions of many Democrats and a few Republicans.

After several days of silence, Mukasey wrote a letter to several Democratic senators Tuesday in which he outlined his position in more detail. He said the idea of waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is personally repugnant, but he didn't explicitly rule it out as torture, saying he could not speculate on something classified.

The Associated Press reports that his answer didn't appear to help his case. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who had supported Mukasey, refused to say if he will still vote for the retired judge next week.

Don Gonyea, NPR's White House correspondent, said it's hard to say if the decision by the committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, to schedule the vote means that the White House has been able to convince enough people to support his nomination. Mostly, Don says, the administration is still knocking the Democrats for not accepting Mukasey's explanation.

And Don says so far, there isn't any buzz that the White House is making backup plans.

3:53 PM ET | 10-31-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

How can anyone in the general public
even take this seriously anymore?
All three branches of government are
playing some bizarre game which makes
no sense to the general public and does
not even vaguely address their needs.
Why doesn't Cheney just show up
for all confirmation hearings himself,
sporting a sock-puppet? After all
he's got one manning the oval office.

Sent by Sam | 8:30 AM ET | 11-01-2007

Send a Comment

Comments are reviewed and edited by NPR prior to display. All comments will be read, but not all will be posted.

NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its Web site or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.

E-mail this Page

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No
May we contact you with information about NPR programming and services? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No

(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)

Tom Regan

Blogger

About Us

This year's election cycle has been one of the most exciting in memory. At the NPR News Blog we'll do our best to bring you interesting, informative -- and controversial -- stories from our own reporters and bloggers, as well as the rest of the best of the Internet and blogosphere. And we hope you'll let us know what you think as well.

Want to learn more? Be sure to read our Frequently Asked Questions and our discussion guidelines.