U.S. Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey is making it clear he would demand a U.S. Justice Department free of outside interference if confirmed to replace Alberto Gonzales, putting to rest Democrats’ fears.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who along with others accused Gonzales of politicizing the department, said Mukasey assured him he’d operate differently — and fire anyone who violated his rules.

Leahy quoted Mukasey, from a meeting with him this week, as saying if someone from the outside — including the White House or Congress — called the department to inquire about an investigation, they’d be referred to Mukasey or his deputy.

Leahy said Mukasey told him that he and his deputy may decide to provide the caller no information, and if another member of the department did, “They will be fired.”

“It’s kind of an attitude I like,” Leahy said on Thursday in relating the story to his committee, which will hold confirmation hearings. A date for hearings have not yet been set.
  

Gonzales came under fire, in part, because of charges some Republican lawmakers and possibly the White House tried to pressure resistant federal prosecutors, who were later sacked. 

In embracing Mukasey, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is offering his most effusive praise of a Bush nominee since Harriet Miers, the president’s failed 2005 Supreme Court pick.
    
“We feel that this man has the ability to renovate the Justice Department,” Reid said on Wednesday after a meeting with the retired judge and former federal prosecutor.
   
Reid said he expects him to win Senate approval unless unanticipated problems pop up at his confirmation hearing. In filling Gonzales’ job, some conservatives had favored former Solicitor General Theodore Olson. But Bush picked Mukasey after Reid vowed to block Olson as too partisan. 

The Miers’ nomination was withdrawn after conservatives complained she was not conservative enough — and after Reid offered effusive praise for Bush’s selection of his then White House counsel. 

– Reporting by Thomas Ferraro; photo by Kevin Lamarque