In key Gitmo case, Mukasey stays on White House path

Can caretaker Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey set the Justice Department straight?

That is the question that hangs over the short-termer, who inherited a department set back on its heels by complaints of political interference and a readiness to overlook legal standards in the fight against terrorism.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was quoted in the Washington Post as saying the attorney general was "content to serve as a caretaker for the regime of excessive executive power established by the Bush administration."

This morning, Mukasey made it clear that on one of the most controversial issues facing the department, the Bush administration was not shifting course: The Supreme Court's decision that gave detainees at Guantanamo Bay the right to use federal courts to challenge their imprisonment.

In a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, he turned to Congress to limit the impact of the ruling. He said it should pass legislation barring federal judges from letting out of the prison there any of the detainees, many of whom he said "pose an extraordinary threat to Americans."

He wasn't saying the court decision should be ignored. His point was to find a way of keeping the prisoners at Guantanamo while their court cases proceed.

"Congress should make clear that a federal court may not order the government to bring enemy combatants into the United States" to attend court proceedings, he said.

It is with just such issues that Mukasey's reputation as attorney general is likely to rest.

The Washington Post noted that he has "rejected requests to name a special prosecutor to examine whether Cabinet officials committed war crimes when they approved harsh interrogation tactics for terrorism suspects."

And, it observed, he decided not to revisit the question of whether a public corruption case criticized by 52 bipartisan state attorneys general was a matter of "selective prosecution" -- meaning that politics played a role in the decision to prosecute.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Report links Cheney office, oil giant to global warming policy shift

A congressional investigation has produced new details on the degree to which senior Bush administration officials favored using the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gas emissions — until pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, ExxonMobil and others in the oil industry led the Bush administration to change course.

A report by the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, issued today, supports the disclosure by a former Environmental Protection Agency official last week that someone in Cheney's office had a hand in the shift in policy.

Among the findings of the congressional investigation: There was wide senior-level support at the EPA for concluding that greenhouse gases are a danger to the public and that the EPA should regulate emissions — from vehicles, power plants, refineries and other sources.

That would have been a dramatic shift in federal policy, and it would have given the EPA a powerful hand in trying to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases widely blamed for causing global warming.

Among those supporting this view, the report said, were Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and three senior White House officials: Deputy Chief of Staff Joel D. Kaplan; Susan E. Dudley, regulatory chief at the Office of Management and Budget; and James L. Connaughton, chief of the Council on Environmental Quality.

According to the House committee report, representatives of ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute and the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Assn. argued ...

Bush administration: No comment on abortion rule change

The Bush administration responded today to reports that it was drafting a regulation that critics fear would further restrict a woman's access to contraceptive materials or abortions.

Countdown to Crawford and other sites reported Tuesday that the Bush administration is considering a regulation that would allow any healthcare provider to refuse to deliver medical services that violate the worker's moral beliefs. The report was based on a draft of a rule being prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The 39-page document spells out a regulation that could have an effect on pharmacies, clinics, doctors' offices, hospitals and other workers and facilities in the broad healthcare network receiving federal money.

This afternoon, Kevin Schweers, a deputy assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for public affairs, responded in an e-mail: “Over the past three decades, Congress has passed several anti-discrimination laws to protect institutional and individual health care providers participating in federal programs."

He continued: "HHS has an obligation to enforce these laws, and is exploring a number of options.  For example, Secretary [Mike] Leavitt recently sent letters to the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology expressing concern over policies that may have forced providers to choose between compromising their personal beliefs and facing economic and professional sanctions."

Asked for a specific response to the draft of the potential new regulation, he said in a follow-up e-mail: "I read through the blog posting and don't think we'll have anything further to add in the immediate future."

--James Gerstenzang 

Photo: Handout

War: Who is it good for?

Now that it's becoming increasingly clear that no member of the Bush administration is likely to become John McCain's veep, speculation is shifting to which Cabinet members may stick around for the next administration.

Much of the chatter has focused on Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. But a longtime McCain ally said even if the Arizona senator decides to keep Gates on for a few months, it would only be as a placeholder for another Bush administration veteran: fellow Navy and Vietnam veteran Richard L. Armitage.

Armitage, who served as deputy secretary of State under Colin Powell in the first Bush term, is close to McCain. But his appointment might stir controversy among neoconservatives, who distrust Armitage on the war. Then too, he's got confirmation problems, having admitted leaking the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. One possible backup: Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Democrat from Connecticut who is now an Independent and follows McCain to many a campaign stop.

Of course, just in case McCain loses to Barack Obama, Gates could still stick around. But Democrats -- mocked during the Clinton administration for their distrust of the Pentagon -- have a pretty strong bench, including former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, already a top Obama advisor, and two former deputy Defense secretaries: John Hamre and Rudy DeLeon.

And there are plenty of Democrats on the Hill who sources say Obama is considering for the top Pentagon post. Topping the list is Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, an Army veteran, and former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn.

-- Peter Spiegel

Photo: AFP/Getty Images

No More Vacancy in This Housing Slot: Bush Gets His Nominee

The question facing new Cabinet member Steve Preston is whether he will have time to sign in before he begins signing out?

President Bush is planning to take part in the ceremonial swearing-in Friday of his newest Cabinet member, who was confirmed late Wednesday night as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In a written statement, the president praised Preston, who is coming over from running the Small Business Administration, for his understanding of financial markets and his "strong management skills."

  But with barely seven months until the clock runs out on the Bush administration--and Cabinet secretaries submit their resignations--the most important skill might be at running the bureaucratic equivalent of a 100-yard hurdles race: He is entering one of the most politically fraught arenas of the 2008 political season, the housing and credit crisis, with little in the way of built-up political capital or housing experience.

But if nothing else, the nomination gives Bush one of his top priorities on a dwindling "to do" list that he has handed Congress, and suggests a least a slight cracking of the log-jam that has held up dozens of priority nominations.

   --James Gerstenzang

Photo: Gerald Herbert/Associated Press