WASHINGTON -- The Associated Press reports that President Bush will pick Michael Mukasey, a retired federal judge and judicial advisor to the Giuliani campaign, as his nominee for Attorney General. I don't know very much about Mukasey, but he appears not to be a member of the Bush Good Old Boys Network. This is heartening news; with a Democratic majority in the Senate -- and with Republicans tired of Gonzales' cronyism -- Bush was forced to pick a nominee based not on his history with the president, but on -- what's that? His credentials?!

This is exactly what the Founding Fathers hoped for in writing the Constitution: that requiring the "advice and consent" of the Senate would mean that the president would have to compromise. For six years, the president and the Senate were the same party, so Bush could pretty much appoint whomever he wanted (unless the nominee was hilariously unqualified, as with Harriet Miers). Now, though, with Democrats in the majority, Bush is forced to actually pick a candidate that everyone will be happy with, and that kind of candidate is not someone who has been with Bush for the last fifteen years (cf. Gonzales, Miers, Karl Rove, et al.).

Mukasey seems eminently qualified. He first served as a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1970s and was then appointed as a federal judge for the same district in 1987. He left that position in 2006, returning to the New York law firm he worked for from 1976 to 1987. He does not appear to have any strong ties to President Bush; or, at least, his ties aren't nearly as strong as Gonazles'. Let's hope Mukasey's tenure signals the end of Bush cronyism in Washington.