The Washington Post’s Carrie Johnson usually does an excellent job covering the myriad scandals at the Bush administration’s Justice Dept. But her profile yesterday of Attorney General Michael Mukasey is far too gentle. Understanding Government is flagging the piece, because it does provide a nice summary of Mukasey’s short but tumultuous tenure at Justice: the confirmation hearing where he didn’t call waterboarding torture, the refusal to hand over Dick Cheney’s FBI interview about Valerie Plame Wilson, the struggle to handle expected habeas corpus claims by Guantanamo Bay detainees, and the blithe refusal to delve into the maw of U.S. Attorney problems.

But Johnson was granted an interview by Mukasey and rarely delves beyond the setting of talking with this thoughtful, grandfatherly man. We learn Mukasey has a good sense of humor. And he gets up early. What we don’t learn is why he’s done nothing to distance himself from the scandal-plagued Justice Dept. he’s inherited. In asserting executive privilege over Cheney’s interview, categorically refusing to investigate Bush administration officials, not looking at the prosecution of Alabama governor Don Seigelman and doing as little as possible about torture, Mukasey has lost all claims of independence from the White House. But he sounds like he’s studious and gets along with his family.-MB

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