Mukasey a Decent Candidate for AG (Sen. Charles Schumer)

We asked for someone who would be open-minded, who would be fair, and who would be independent. We don’t expect his views to be the same as ours. He could get a unanimous vote out of this committee. It’s not a done deal yet, but he could.

I met with him and asked him a lot of difficult questions. He understands that the executive branch can’t appropriate to itself all of the balances between security and liberty. The Constitution intended that there’s open debate in the legislative branch, which tends to favor liberty a little more, and that has to have a say.

The bottom line is the Justice Department needs a new broom to sweep clean, and if he can be that new broom, that’s great. The Department is desperate for it. We need morale.

When you sit down with him, he’s a fair-minded and independent guy. He’s the best we could expect from an administration that, on many issues, has views that no one has even heard before.

I like him. I expect when he becomes attorney general we’ll have significant disagreements but I think you’ll always get a fair hearing. On other issues – on terrorism and balance of security and liberty – he’s pretty far over on the security side, no question about it. But on civil rights, he’s quite moderate. The civil rights division needs a lot of help too.