Key senate panel OKs Bush’s Attorney General nomination

    WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate judiciary panel endorsed on Tuesday President George W. Bush's nomination of Michael Mukasey as the country's new Attorney General.

    The move will forward the nomination for a full Senate vote and indicates the former New York judge will surely take the new post before the end of the month.

    The 11-8 vote came after Mukasey gained support of two key Democrats in the panel on the issue of the administration's interrogation methods used on terror suspects.

    The nomination seemed in jeopardy briefly when Senate Democrats and some Republicans raised questions about the nominee's refusal to condemn the interrogation practice known as water boarding.

    They also criticized Mukasey's expansive view of executive power.

    All of the Democratic senators running for president vowed to vote against Mukasey and several of the Democrats in the panel did so.

    But two key Democrats and all of the committee's Republicans voted in his favor, helping his nomination pass the key panel.

    The two Democrats are Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California.

    At the age of 66, the former chief in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, was described by Republicans as a conservative on counter terrorism issues, such as electronic surveillance, who has a solid reputation and trust of Bush and his aides.

    Mukasey will replace Alberto R. Gonzales, who resigned in August on suspicion of lying to Congress on his dismissal of nine federal prosecutors.

    One of his first tasks as attorney general will be to replace the senior Justice Department officials who left during the scandals of the past year.

    Georgetown Law Professor Viet Dinh, who worked in the Justice Department during Bush's first term, called the process "the control-alt-delete of the Department of Justice -- to reboot the Department of Justice."

    With only a year left in the Bush administration, Mukasey will have to move quickly, analysts said.