WASHINGTON — One senator described it as "dysfunctional." Another called it a "monster." The committee chairman agreed it was a "troubled department." So it went Wednesday as a Senate panel gratefully welcomed Michael Chertoff, President Bush's choice to lead the still-unsettled Department of Homeland Security.
Rather than grill the nominee to see whether he was up to the job, most senators used Chertoff's confirmation hearing to say they were glad he was willing to give up his tenured post as a federal appeals judge to try to manage an unwieldy department that melded 22 agencies and 180,000 employees.
"I greatly appreciate your willingness to leave the circuit court to take on these truly awesome responsibilities," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.).
Chertoff appeared headed toward easy confirmation when the committee votes, probably on Monday. He would succeed Tom Ridge.
Chertoff said he was prompted to take the job because of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "Since Sept. 11, 2001, the challenge of our generation has been to defend our country against the evil of terrorism while honoring our fundamental commitment to liberties and privacy," he said.
Chertoff, 51, already has been confirmed by the Senate for three prior jobs: as the U.S. attorney in Newark, N.J.; head of the Justice Department's criminal division; and, two years ago, as U.S. court of appeals judge in Philadelphia. None of the committee's Democrats voiced opposition to his nomination as secretary of Homeland Security.
A top deputy to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, Chertoff was an architect of the Bush administration's legal strategy after the 2001 attacks, and he was questioned Wednesday about U.S. treatment of prisoners abroad and the detaining of more than 700 immigrants here.
Chertoff denied that he was involved in a Justice Department memo that defined torture narrowly. He also disputed news reports that suggested he had advised the Defense Department and the CIA on interrogation methods that stopped just short of torture.
"I was not involved in the process of how the memo was generated.... I had no involvement in that," Chertoff said when asked about the so-called "torture memo" that was sent to White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales in August 2002.
Chertoff said he met with lawyers from the Defense Department but did not tell them how far they could go in trying to squeeze information from the Muslim men who were detained at Guantanamo Bay. "My position was not to give advance advice on what you can do," he said.
