Mukasey Is Qualified, But Does He Get That DoJ Is Broken? (Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse)

I am cautiously optimistic. He is clearly qualified by virtue of experience.

He appears to have his ideology appropriately restricted so that the Department of Justice can be independent, and I think the big issues that at least I have and that will be of most interest to me in the hearings are: can he help us sort through the exaggerated assertion of executive privilege and free some of the documents that I think we are properly entitled to for our oversight function, and two, does he understand that the Department of Justice internally truly has been broken in many ways, and is he willing to go through the specific things that have been broken and put them right so the department can get back on its feet again.

It’s not just that Gonzales was the wrong man and is now gone; there was also structural administrative damage done and that needs to be repaired and I need to be assured that he gets that part of it.