What they can't get legitimately, they are seeking to acquire by holding Judge Michael Mukasey hostage before the Judiciary Committee.

Two Senate Democrats warned Monday that the Judiciary Committee would delay confirmation of President BushÂ’s choice for attorney general unless the White House turned over documents that the panel was seeking for several investigations.

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But two Democrats who will have a powerful say over whether Mr. Mukasey gets confirmed — Senators Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Charles E. Schumer of New York — vowed on Monday to use the nomination to extract information from a reluctant White House.

“All I want is the material we need to ask some questions about the former attorney general’s conduct, on torture and warrantless wiretapping, so we can legitimately ask, ‘Here’s what was done in the past, what will you do?”’ Mr. Leahy, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said.

Already, the New York Times is making noise about the appointment. This despite the fact that until last week Mukasey was the darling of the Democrats. Now that he has been appointed, the NYT finds aspects of his record that are "troubling".

In particular, they are complaining about the shift of leadership at the Justice Department from Solicitor General Paul Clement to Peter Keisler

Mr. Bush also announced yesterday that he was replacing Acting Attorney General Paul Clement, who was to serve until the Senate confirmed Mr. GonzalesÂ’s successor, with Peter Keisler, a hard-line movement conservative. Mr. BushÂ’s sleight of hand in installing Mr. Keisler is an unfortunate indication that he intends to keep the department politicized for as long as he can.

However, as Hugh Hewitt noted on his show yesterday, there is a reason for the change -- as Solicitor General, Clement is in charge of arguing cases before the US Supreme Court when the federal government is a party. The new term opens October 1, and the Solicitor General has several cases to present early in the term. Dividing his attention between those cases and the running of the Justice Department would be a bad move, hence the shift in responsibility. It signals nothing about a newly confrontational move by the President.

However, if the Democrats are out to play hardball, the President needs to do the same. If there is an unreasonable delay in confirming Mukasey, a recess appointment is in order -- making Ted Olson the Attorney General, as he so richly deserves.

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