On Fri, 2 Nov 2007, The WSJ was quoted:
> NEWS ALERT
> from The Wall Street Journal
>
> Oct. 2, 2007 [BTW, I assume this is a misprint for Nov. 2? - MP]
>
> Two senior Senate Democrats threw their support behind Michael B.
> Mukasey's nomination to head the Justice Department, turning the tide
> and likely assuring his confirmation. Sens. Schumer and Feinstein
> said fixing problems and repairing morale at the Justice Department
> are more important than settling larger political disputes.
I can't say about Feinstein, but with Schumer, this is unfortunately no surprise. Schumer put himself down for Mukasey before he had testified -- nay, he bragged about his influence in getting the administration to nominate him.
The reason seems to be that Schumer is more than close buddies with Guiliani -- he feels he owes him on several counts -- and Guiliani is super tight with Mukasey.
Why does Schumer feel he owes Guiliani? Wayne Barrett says (a) because he damped down an investigation of his campaign practices in 1980 which his boss at Justice wanted to get rolling, and (b) Guiliani hired his wife as transportation commissioner in his administration -- and made a specific pitch to get Bloomberg to take her into his:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0744,barrett,78212,6.html
The question for Mukasey is not what he'll do at Justice
for the soon-to-be- departing Republican president, but what he'll do
for the putative next one, his lifelong friend Rudy Giuliani. Mukasey
and Giuliani were young federal prosecutors together in the early 1970s
and then practiced at the same Manhattan law firm, Patterson Belknap,
where Mukasey returned in 2006 when he retired after 18 years on the
federal bench in New York. Giuliani chose Mukasey to swear him in at
his inaugurals in 1994 and 1998.
The question of Mukasey's strong ties to Giuliani got the light touch
from Senator Pat Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman who opened the
two-day proceeding by saying that he assumed Mukasey would "totally
recuse" himself from "any involvement with Mr. Giuliani or any other
candidate for president." Mukasey laughed at the question, as if the
answer was obvious, and quickly agreed. But that chuckle rings a little
hollow when you look at who had come with him to the hearing: his wife
Susan, who volunteered almost daily in the Giuliani mayoral campaigns;
his stepson Marc, who was a staff assistant in one campaign and
currently is a partner at the Texas-based law firm that Giuliani
recently joined, Bracewell & Giuliani; and Louis Freeh, the former FBI
director who recently endorsed Giuliani and worked closely with him as
a federal prosecutor. Marc Mukasey is currently representing Giuliani
Partners in the federal probe of Bernard Kerik, a onetime member of the
consulting firm.
<snip>
There's no way to know, given the secrecy that grips Justice, how many
cases directly or indirectly involving Mukasey clients or Giuliani
interests might wind up before Mukasey. Would he distance himself from
such matters, especially those regarding Rudy? He didn't as a judge.
<commentary>
[I snipped a long list of cases here. Barrett's implicit argument is that a lot of these cases could potentially wound the Guiliani campaign -- but not if Mukasey damps them down.]
[Also he notes that Guiliani and Mukasey are both vehement about "policing voter fraud" -- i.e., suppressing black votes. Guiliani blamed his 1989 loss on illegal voters in Harlem and Washington Heights and pushed for investigations. Suppression could be a big legal issue-- or non-issue, a suppressed issue -- in the 2008 race.]
<begin new excerpt>
Even the Democratic senator guiding Mukasey's nomination though the
Senate, Chuck Schumer, has his own Giuliani connections. As associate
attorney general in 1983, Giuliani rebuffed Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Ray
Dearie, who had recommended Schumer's indictment based on allegations
involving his initial election to Congress in 1980. Schumer's wife,
Iris Weinshall, held several top posts in the Giuliani administration,
and was ultimately his transportation commissioner. Mayor Bloomberg has
said that Giuliani asked him to retain only two of his top aides when
he left City Hall, and one was Weinshall. Before Weinshall took over
the transportation job, she was a deputy commissioner under Giuliani at
another agency, where she oversaw the construction of the bunker at 7
World Trade Center.
Schumer pushed the White House to nominate Mukasey, just as he did with
Paul Crotty. He was impressed, no doubt, by Mukasey's intellect and
judicial service. But Schumer has not only championed Giuliani
associates like the well-regarded Crotty and Mukasey; he also rushed to
endorse Kerik when Bush nominated him for the homeland-security
position, praising Kerik's "strong law-enforcement background" and
predicting that he would do "an excellent job" at the giant agency.
Schumer and the other committee Democrats did interrogate Mukasey about
his views on detention, interrogation, torture, and related terror
issues and found that they are largely indistinguishable from the views
of President Bush. The committee is now awaiting Mukasey's more
expansive answers to written questions, and some members are saying
that their votes are in doubt, though Schumer was publicly predicting a
unanimous vote for Mukasey after the first day's hearing.
<end excerpt>
Full at: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0744,barrett,78212,6.html
Michael