In 1993, Mukasey sentenced Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the Blind Sheik to life in prison for his role in a plot to blow up the World Trade Center and tunnels in the Wall Street area. In 2003, as chief judge, Mukasey ruled that dirty bomber Jose Padilla was an enemy combatant but entitled to access to his lawyers.
But Richard Viguerie, founder of the website Conservatives Betrayed.COM urges President Bush to pick the most conservative possible choice for attorney general for the express purpose of picking a fight with the Democrats and to reassert the role of conservatives in government. Viguerie’s op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times,
”Use the A.G. Appointment to Pick a Fight,”
advises Bush:
”to restore his relevancy and revive the Republican coalition by deliberately picking an ideological fight with the Democrats.”
Read Viguerie’s column here. Viguerie has also written a book about the decline of conservatism titled ”Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause."