Right the Ship or Hold the Course?

After the turbulent departure of Gonzales last summer, legal analysts urged President Bush to appoint a lawyer of bulletproof integrity and sterling qualifications to reshape Justice. It was, they said, a rare opportunity to clean house in a department besieged by controversy.

A former federal prosecutor and district court judge for nearly 18 years, Mukasey drew praise in legal circles for his razor-sharp intellect and clever turns of phrase. His former law clerks say his lack of political ambition awards him unusual freedom to act independently and to speak his mind.

But since joining Justice, he has resisted invitations to criticize the department or its previous leaders, who remain under scrutiny by the inspector general for their role in firing nine U.S. attorneys and for statements they made to Congress.

Close associates attribute that taciturn approach to Mukasey's deep, though not blind, loyalty. On at least one recent occasion, he privately voiced strong objections to a plan floated by some White House advisers that would have sent scores of Guantanamo detainees into the United States and its civilian court system. He said that move would clog the courts and possibly expose sensitive intelligence methods, according to sources familiar with policy council meetings earlier this month.

"One has to be alert to the possibility that you'll have a tactical success and a strategic defeat," Mukasey said of his general line of thinking in a recent interview.

Mukasey's aides say his actions at Justice speak for themselves.

Since coming on board, the attorney general has limited the number of people at the department who can receive calls from the White House. He restored workplace meeting privileges to a group of gay and lesbian employees and spoke at an awards ceremony honoring two of them in the department's grandly restored Great Hall. He reminded prosecutors that politics should play no role in public corruption or any other criminal cases. And he has forsaken the honorific title "general," asking staff members to call him "judge" instead.

When evidence emerged last winter that CIA tapes depicting the use of harsh interrogation tactics on terrorism suspects had been destroyed, Mukasey swiftly appointed a special prosecutor to investigate -- a sign, allies say, that he will act if enough credible evidence emerges to merit a criminal probe. He has resisted Democrats' other requests in part by arguing that their allegations are thin and that coercive questioning strategies were blessed by administration lawyers at the time.

But still, nearly every week brings troubling disclosures about the regime that preceded him.

Last month the department's inspector general concluded that political appointees had violated the law by considering the ideology of candidates for a prestigious program for rookie lawyers. A forthcoming investigative report on the rationale for firing U.S. attorneys could be even more damaging to the department and its reputation, according to lawyers following the probe.

But, as befits the son of a Russian immigrant, who says in passing, "I was always the good kid," Mukasey is keeping his head down and his mouth shut. The attorney general adheres to a grueling schedule, beginning each day with a 7:30 national security threat briefing, and hustles through the motions, though he lacks the back-slapping charm of a natural politician drawn to the ceremonial aspects of his office. He and his wife, Susan, a retired headmistress at an orthodox Jewish school, venture between their home in New York and a downtown Washington apartment. He sees his two young grandsons sparingly.

There are other costs, as well. The attorney general has aides to tell him when to begin talking, deputies to tell him when to stop, and functionaries who interrupt when the next engagement approaches. The lack of control clearly befuddles a man renowned for tightly regulating himself, and his courtroom.

"It's infantilizing," said Mukasey, who acknowledged missing the power to call a recess and direct his own schedule.

"There is nothing frivolous about him," said his son, New York criminal defense lawyer Marc L. Mukasey. "He doesn't do politics, and he doesn't do popularity contests. He doesn't do flavor-of-the-month. He does law."

Mary Jo White, who was U.S. attorney in New York during the Clinton administration and who continued in her post after the 9/11 attacks, credits Mukasey with bringing "an absence of distraction" to a department hit hard by scandal.

"They're basically back to business and priorities," she said. "They're not in the news so much, which is a good thing."