Is Bush buckling under pressure?

President Bush revealed his pick to replace the scandalized former Attornety General Alberto Gonzalez today:

Retired federal judge Michael Mukasey.

Bush said Mukasey was:

clear-eyed about the threat our nation faces.”

Mukasey will have to await confirmation by the Senate. He’s unlikely to face much resistance fromt he Democratic-controlled Congress because..well… he’s not Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff or former solicitor general Ted Olson.

Democrats last week threatened to block the nomination of Olsen believing him to be a Bush cronie and too partisan for the job.

White House press secretary Dana Perino denied that Bush buckled under pressure.

We’re nto looking for a fight,” Perino said. ”The Senate Democrats have made the Department of Justice their cause celebre for the past several months and they have decided that that’s where they wanted to fight.”

Mukasey, though a conservative, enjoys bipartisan support - having recieved endorsements in the past from liberal Democrats.

While he is certainly conservative, Judge Mukasey seems to be the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House — our most important criteria,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

More about Mukasey….

Tenure as Judge
As chief judge of the federal courthouse in Manhattan, Mukasey handled many high-profile terrorism cases.

One of the most famous was the trial of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was accused of plotting to destroy New York City landmarks. Mukasey gave the sheik life in prison.

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