Okay, with a pitch like that, you’re going to want to read John Podhoretz’s column on the new AG nominee. Mukasey presided over the trial of blind sheik Abdul Rahman. Podhoretz notes:
For his labors, which were extraordinarily complex, Mukasey was considered a possible target for violent reprisal by Rahman’s followers.
He was, in effect, an American Salman Rushdie.
Unlike Rushdie, Mukasey couldn’t go into hiding: He was a sitting federal judge. But he and his wife basically lived for years inside a security cocoon.
Podhoretz adds:
This is, of course, not a qualification to serve as attorney general. But it represents a profound cost he incurred for a career as a public servant – a cost that should give the Ready-to-Fire Brigade that greets all presidential nominations a moment’s pause when they start thinking about ginning up a campaign of character assassination.
That doesn’t just mean the Angry Left. It means the Right as well. Conservative bloggers over the weekend expressed their concern about Mukasey’s nomination, in part because Mukasey was chosen on grounds of ‘confirmability.’