Mukasey Collapses

by hilzoy

From TPM:

"Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed this evening while giving a speech to Federalist Society in Washington, DC. (...)

As best we can tell no news service has any new substantive information about the AG's health, other than the initial news that he began slurring his speech and then shaking and then collapsed. There seems to be no solid information about whether he regained consciousness."

I hope he's OK; my thoughts are with him and his family.

***

UPDATE: From a DoJ statement (via TPM):

"The Attorney General is conscious, conversant and alert. His vital statistics are strong and he is in good spirits. He is receiving excellent care and appreciates all of the good wishes and prayers he has received. The doctors will keep him overnight for further observations."

TPM also has an eyewitness account of his collapse here.

Comments

[now_what]

From TPM, noted without comment:

AG Mukasey was roughly twenty minutes into a speech defending the administration's torture policies...Mukasey appeared in earnest about it and appeared at first simply to be choking up. Soon, what at first appeared to be choking up blended into slurred words. And twenty to thirty seconds later he collapsed, his fall broken by a nearby FBI agent.

[BDWB]

Latest TPM report indicates that he's "conscious, alert, strong vital signs."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/245324.php

[EarBucket]

He apparently collapsed on the sentence:

And I am hopeful that some time from now, after the next Administration has had the chance to review the decisions made and the legal advice provided, it will acknowledge that despite any policy differences, the national security lawyers in this Administration acted professionally and in good faith and that the country was safer as a result.

If it'd happened in a movie, I'd have thrown popcorn at the screen.

[Warren Terra]

Anyone else getting Deja Vu about William Casey, who occupied a position of responsibility and became incapacitated just as serious investigation into flagrant lawbreaking by the administration he served got underway?

(not that serious investigation into this one has actually started, but on the other hand Mukasey is so far reported to be doing well, and I hope he has many years of good health ahead - albeit years of good health spent facing criminal investigation)

[Jesurgislac]

So, the Attorney-General of the United States, defending the practice of torturing prisoners by the United States, is apparently struck down by a silent, invisible force?

...nah.

I'm still an atheist.

[Zifnab]

Reminds me of when Ashcroft fell ill. How soon till they've got the next Alberto Gonzales shoving papers in his face to sign while he's still hooked up to oxygen?

[jean]

Classic low blood sugar, once cardiac and cerebral events are ruled out.

[Nell]

Classic low blood sugar, once cardiac and cerebral events are ruled out.

As they now seem to have been. Mukasey will be released today.

So... low blood sugar, or instant karma?

[Gary Farber]

So he's gone home now, and it's said just to have been a fainting spell.