So anyway, yes, Michael Mukasey is my cousin. My first cousin once removed: his mother and my mother's mother were sisters, making him my mother's first cousin. But he's much closer in age to my generation than to hers -- he's 25 years younger than she was -- so at family gatherings etc. he was really always more one of us. (It's a huge family and we have many gatherings.) He and my mother were close, though, and she used to go down to court to watch the trials he presided over once he was a judge. I did that once or twice myself.

His politics are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to the right of mine, but he's one of the most honest, honorable, and principled men I ever met. He'll be the embodiment of independence and he won't back down; he has no political ambition and pressure won't mean anything to him. This may seem, these days, like a unique quality in an Attorney General, but he really believes in the law. If he weren't my cousin but I knew as much about him as I do, I'd be in favor of this nomination. As it is, all I can say is, "Woo-hoo! Go Michael!"