Mukasey Confirmed as Attorney General
The Senate has approved Michael Mukasey’s nomination to become attorney general in a 53-40 vote.
Six Democrats and one independent voted with 46 Republicans to approve the nomination yesterday evening, the New York Times reports. The vote, which came after four hours of debate, was the closest for any attorney general since 1952, the Washington Post reports.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., urged approval. “The Department of Justice needs Judge Mukasey at work tomorrow morning,” said Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The Department of Justice has been categorized as dysfunctional and in disarray. It is in urgent need of an attorney general.”
But the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., disagreed with the nomination because of Mukasey’s refusal to say whether waterboarding constitutes torture.
“I am not going to aid and abet the confirmation contortions of this administration,” he said. “I do not vote to allow torture.”
