Promising choice for AG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

President Bush apparently has avoided a confrontation with the left with his nomination of retired federal judge Michael Mukasey to succeed Alberto Gonzales as attorney general. But he may have picked a fight with the right, which will have a hard time swallowing any candidate praised by liberals the likes of Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Bush's conservative base - one used to getting its way on everything from federal tax breaks to Supreme Court nominations - dearly wanted Theodore Olson, the former solicitor general who represented the president in Bush vs. Gore, the Supreme Court case that stopped the vote recount in Florida after the 2000 election. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did Americans - and a habitually self-wounding Bush White House - a huge favor by promising to block Olson if he was nominated.

In dropping Olson from the top of his list and going with Mukasey, Bush chose an attorney general with a reputation for judicial integrity and political independence. While Mukasey is a political conservative of the first order, he is also, in the words of fellow New Yorker Schumer, "the kind of nominee who would put the rule of law first and show independence from the White House." In other words, he's no Theodore Olson. And, above all (cue the "Hallelujah Chorus"), he's no Alberto Gonzales.

As a former federal prosecutor and judge, Mukasey has demonstrated time and again that he has the ability to apply the law without fear or favor - and without regard to partisan politics. His rulings, especially in high-profile terrorism cases, alternately have angered and pleased both conservatives and liberals.

For example, the right applauded his decision to uphold the president's right to designate suspected terrorist Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant, while the left cheered when Judge Mukasey testily insisted that Padilla be allowed access to legal counsel.

If Mukasey has a weakness, it's a disturbing inclination to give security more weight than individual rights in the war against terror. In confirmation hearings, senators should question him closely about his ruling that the president has the authority to hold U.S. citizens indefinitely as enemy combatants, a decision that was properly reversed on appeal. Mukasey also should explain his unqualified public support for the USA Patriot Act and a recent Wall Street Journal guest column in which he expressed skepticism about legislation that would restore habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo detainees and allow them to challenge their imprisonment.

If Mukasey breezes to confirmation, as expected, he will inherit a Justice Department that has been devastated by an attorney general and White House that improperly and illegally injected politics into its every function. Under Gonzales, U.S. attorneys were pressured into using their offices for the most crassly political purposes - helping Republicans win elections. In testimony to Congress, Justice officials admitted screening job applicants based on their politics. Most of the department's top administrators have departed, and many of those who remain are Bush loyalists whonevershouldhave been hired in the first place. The morale of the department's 100,000 employees is at an all-time low.

In nominating Mukasey, Bush has chosen a candidate with the independence, intellect and experience needed to restore the American public's trust in a Justice Department battered by far too many years of mismanagement and political abuse.