SCHUMER AND MUKASEY: NOT EVEN SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION

I see that my senior senator, Chuck Schumer, has caved on the Mukasey nomination. I just want to remind you, via Wayne Barrett's article in this week's Village Voice, just how little separates Schumer and Mukasey. The big step in the middle is Mukasey's close pal Rudy Giuliani. Here's Barrett:

Even the Democratic senator guiding Mukasey's nomination though the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has his own Giuliani connections. As associate attorney general in 1983, Giuliani rebuffed Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Ray Dearie, who had recommended Schumer's indictment based on allegations involving his initial election to Congress in 1980. Schumer's wife, Iris Weinshall, held several top posts in the Giuliani administration, and was ultimately his transportation commissioner. Mayor Bloomberg has said that Giuliani asked him to retain only two of his top aides when he left City Hall, and one was Weinshall. Before Weinshall took over the transportation job, she was a deputy commissioner under Giuliani at another agency, where she oversaw the construction of the bunker at 7 World Trade Center.

Yikes. Clearly Schumer would be worse than useless during a Giuliani presidency, especially if (as seems likely) Mukasey stays on as AG.