WEEK IN REVIEW: WASHINGTON, D.C.

Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007 | 1:14 a.m.

WASHINGTON - The question is one that does not go away easily: How did President Bush's nominee for attorney general, an otherwise respected jurist who refused to say whether waterboarding was torture, end up winning the Senate's approval over the objections of its majority leader?

Michael Mukasey's confirmation turned the page on a turbulent era at the Justice Department. Concerns about politicizing the department reached as far as Nevada, where U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden was fired for no clear reason as part of a nationwide purge of federal prosecutors. Unable to curb the department's descent, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned in August.

Near the eve of the vote to confirm Mukasey this month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced he would oppose confirmation.

Reid had said he was "profoundly disturbed by statements Judge Michael Mukasey made during his confirmation hearings" and had singled out the nominee's statements on waterboarding.

Reid also said he had no confidence that Mukasey would stand up to Bush.

In the end, Reid's opinion might not have mattered much. The decision had been made a few days earlier. Two leading Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York, announced simultaneously that they would support the judge despite previous reservations.

In politics, much of the debate comes down to the math. Once Feinstein and Schumer were onboard, the 60 votes needed to sustain a filibuster blocking his confirmation were slipping away.

A few nights later, shortly after 11 p.m., the hurried vote came in - 53-40 to confirm.

Much has been made of how the vote came about. The popular Web site TPM Election Central launched a story about a deal between Reid and his Republican counterpart, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell. Reid would agree not to stall Mukasey with a filibuster and Republicans would agree not to stall the $459 billion defense appropriation bill, which the Democrats needed to approve to show they were funding the troops in advance of an upcoming debate on Iraq.

Aides suggested the deal was not starkly quid pro quo. Although last week, as the war funding debate unfolded, Democrats did rely heavily on the defense bill as cover for not approving Bush's supplemental request for money for Iraq.

Reid says giving the Pentagon this cash infusion enables it to shuffle money around so troops are not left without the resources they need. He said he was given assurances by Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the Army could continue operating as usual until February, the Marines until March - although later in the week Gates told the Associated Press he would be forced to begin layoffs.

Christopher Anders, counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said Reid's calculation on the Mukasey vote made the best of a difficult situation. "It's a hard call, but I think it was the right call," Anders said.

Mukasey won approval with a smaller number of votes than any attorney general has received in a half-century, Anders said. As a result, Mukasey "doesn't start his term at the Justice Department with some kind of halo over his head. He goes in with the cloud of a tough confirmation fight.

"It's a strong word to the White House and Mukasey that the Senate intends to keep him on a short leash," Anders said.