As I outlined earlier, the real question in voting for or against Mukasey's confirmation is: if we don't confirm him, who becomes Attorney General? The most likely answer, assuming that Bush keeps pitching bad nominees and Democrats keep rejecting them, is that Peter Keisler continues to rule as Acting Attorney General. So who is Peter Keisler?
He's a co-founder of the hyper-conservative Federalist Society whom Robert Bork regarded as one of his favorite clerks. He oversaw the administration's fight against habeas corpus for people in Guantanamo, and he doesn't think that the government should have to reveal whether or not it is engaging in warrantless surveillance. Unlike Mukasey, I haven't seen any evidence that he's ever said no to the Bush Administration on anything. And like Gonzales, he has a history of interfering with the work of US Attorneys to serve right-wing political interests. From a very well-researched Kos diary:
