Free Republic

In 1973, a 29-year-old federal prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani indicted a Brooklyn congressman, unknowingly creating a political opening for an ambitious 23-year-old named Chuck Schumer. It is the first and least known link between two powerful New York politicians whose paths have crossed and careers intersected in often surprising ways over the past four decades. But it certainly wasn't the last. Just two weeks ago, Sen. Schumer (D-N.Y.) found himself defying his own party to confirm U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a retired Manhattan judge and close friend of the former mayor. Schumer and Giuliani may seem an odd pairing,...

Democratic support for attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey dwindled further yesterday over his refusal to comment on the legality of a harsh CIA interrogation technique, setting the stage for an unexpectedly close vote next week by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (Ill.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) announced that they will join Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.) in voting against Mukasey on the Judiciary panel, after the nominee said in a four-page letter to Senate Democrats that he does not know whether a type of simulated drowning called waterboarding constitutes illegal torture under U.S....

Hillary Clinton has added her name to a laundry list of Democrats that are now opposing the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey for attorney general. However, she may be in a bind because it was her fellow Senator Chuckie Schumer who nominated Mukasey to begin with. Clinton's opposition? The same as Obama, Edwards and others ... responses to questions about interrogation techniques. Mukasey refused to say whether or not waterboarding is a form of torture. He also said that the president has the authority to disobey constitutional federal statues if it is in effort to defend the country. Waterboarding, by...

The President and the first lady spent the weekend at Camp David returning to the White House on Sunday and welcomed author Khaled Hosseini to the White House for a screening of the film adaptation of Hosseini's novel, "The Kite Runner," a fictional story of the friendship between Amir, a privileged boy, and Hassan, the son of his father's servant, in Afghanistan during the last days of the monarchy through the rule of the Taliban. Guests at the screening included amongst others Vice President Dick Cheney; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter...

WASHINGTON - Conservatives on Saturday lined up for and against potential attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey, the man they believe has ascended to the top of President Bush's list of replacements for Alberto Gonzales. Earlier in the week, Democrats in the Senate threatened to block confirmation of another prospect — Theodore Olson, a longtime GOP ally and former solicitor general who represented Bush before the Supreme Court in the contested 2000 presidential election. The behind-the-scenes battle over who will succeed Gonzales heated up over the weekend as the president, who was at Camp David, moved closer to announcing his choice....