Leahy Makes A Move

This is what I was waiting for.

Two Senate Democrats warned today that they might delay confirming President Bush’s next attorney general unless the White House turns over documents relating to several investigations, a move that could provoke the kind of confirmation fight that the Bush administration was hoping to avoid [...]

At a time when Democrats are bitterly at odds with the Bush administration over the war in Iraq, the selection of Mr. Mukasey — a Washington outsider who met Mr. Bush for the first time during an hourlong interview at the White House on Sept. 1 — seemed to signal that the administration is looking to move past the partisanship that characterized Mr. Gonzales’ tenure.

But two Democrats who will have a powerful say over whether Mr. Mukasey gets confirmed — Senators Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Charles E. Schumer of New York — vowed today to use the nomination to pressure the White House into turning over information that the Senate Judiciary Committee has been seeking on the domestic wiretapping program and the government’s treatment of military detainees.

“All I want is the material we need to ask some questions about the former attorney general’s conduct, on torture and warrantless wiretapping, so we can legitimately ask, ‘Here’s what was done in the past, what will you do?’ ” Mr. Leahy, the committee chairman, told reporters.

Harry Reid didn't sound so hardcore, and Schumer was kind of in the middle. But Leahy, as the chair of the Judiciary Committee, holds the cards here. It's curious that documents and witnesses on the US Attorney scandal are not mentioned here (I think that will sadly go away with Abu Gonzales, despite more revelations out there like the politically motivated prosecution of Don Siegelman). Still, this is a good negotiating tactic and the Democrats need to be united to pull it off.

The White House is countering this move by changing the acting attorney general from Paul Clement to grade-A wingnut Peter Keisler. The idea is to almost blackmail the Dems, intimating that more Constitutional freedoms will be taken away if Mukasey isn't confirmed swiftly. So there's pressure on both sides. The Democrats are trying to get the information they need to carry out oversight and the Bush Administration is trying to avoid a protracted fight. We'll see who blinks first.