Democrats back Bush's new pick for attorney general

Most significantly, in December 2002, in an early case involving Jose Padilla, Mukasey ruled that US citizens captured on US soil could be held as “enemy combatants.” This decision favored the Bush administration on a central question in the “war on terror” and constituted a major attack on the democratic rights of all Americans.

In spite of his record on such issues, Mukasey is a consensus choice in Washington and has the strong backing of leading Democrats. New York Senator Charles Schumer, a senior Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had earlier included Mukasey among a list given to Bush of recommendations for acceptable Supreme Court nominees.

Before Bush’s choice was formally announced, Schumer said that he “seems to be the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House, our most important criteria.” On Monday, Schumer indicated that the choice of Mukasey would ease the way for the Democrats to drop their investigations into the practices of the Justice Department under Gonzales. “To hasten an attitude of confrontation when the White House has taken a step forward would be a mistake,” he said.