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Battle for top US lawyer heats up

The behind-the-scenes battle over who take over the top US legal job heated up as US President George W. Bush moved closer to announcing his choice.

Conservatives on Saturday lined up for and against potential attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey, the man they believe has ascended to the top of Bush's list of replacements for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Last week, Democrats in the Senate threatened to block confirmation of another prospect -- Theodore Olson, a longtime Republican ally and former solicitor general who represented Bush before the Supreme Court in the controversial 2000 presidential election.

Gonzales resigned after serving two-and-a-half years at the Justice Department amid investigations into whether he broke the law and lied to Congress.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

It was a furor over the firings of nine US attorneys that marked the beginning of the end of Gonzales' tenure as attorney general and tarnished the department's reputation.

The midterm firings, planned after the 2004 elections, were unprecedented in the department's recent memory and prompted Democrats to question whether they were politically motivated.

So far, the White House has stayed quiet about his replacement. An announcement is expected this week, and some legal conservatives and Republicans have said that the White House appeared to be signaling that Mukasey was Bush's pick.

That prompted questions and praise for the former US district judge from New York, who is an adviser to Rudy Guiliani's presidential campaign.

Brian Burch, president of the Catholic-based advocacy group Fidelis, said he started getting calls early on Saturday from members of his group and other conservative groups who were worried that Bush was getting ready to nominate Mukasey.

"His federal judicial record has been at times hostile to the issues that we care and have concern about, like abortion," Burch said.

Some legal conservatives and Republicans have expressed reservations about Mukasey's legal record and past endorsements, and said that some groups have been drafting a strategy to oppose him.

Others have hailed Mukasey's record.

"He is really tough as nails. He was a really first-rate, brilliant judge and he's got impeccable conservative law-and-order values," said Jay Lefkowitz, a former domestic policy adviser at the Bush White House who handled Justice Department issues.

"I think he would be very well-positioned on national security issues, on prosecuting the `war on terror.' He would be coming from outside the White House and ... could restore confidence in the department," Lefkowitz said.

Mukasey also has boosters among some of Bush's toughest Democratic critics.

Democratic Representative Charles Schumer previously recommended Mukasey for a Supreme Court vacancy.

In June 2005, the liberal Alliance for Justice put Mukasey's name on a list of four judges who, if chosen for the Supreme Court, would show the president's "commitment" to picking someone who could be supported by both Democratic and Republican senators.

Aside from Mukasey and Olson, others being eyed for the post include former deputy attorney general George Terwilliger; 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals Judge William Wilkins; and former deputy attorney general Larry Thompson, who is general counsel at PepsiCo.

Mukasey has handled terrorist cases in the US legal system for more than 10 years.

He was nominated to the federal bench in 1987 by president Ronald Reagan and eventually became chief judge of the high-profile federal courthouse in Manhattan.
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