Attorney General Michael Mukasey Collapses Onstage Tonight

Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed tonight while giving a speech to the Federalist Society in Washington, according to three senior administration officials.Details about Mukasey’s condition were not immediately available at 8:40 Pm MST.

The film clip of Mr. Mukasey at the podium shows him wearing his glasses and in full formal business dress, talking away and suddenly slowing down, pausing, his head begins to lower toward his chest and it appears as the tape went to black that the poor soul fell to the floor. There is a murmur in the background as though someone in the audience immediatley grokked what was happening. And it appears now that as we see the second half of the clip that three big men do manage to grab hold of him and lower him, with difficulty, to the floor. Mr. Mukasey looks very gray in the face going down.

Audience members said they began praying, fearing a stroke.Mukasey, born in the Bronx, is a former federal prosecutor from New York City who succeeded the troubled reigne of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Mr. Mukasey’s adjudication process by Congress almost collapsed when he waffled about on questions re torture of jailed combatants whose rights to habeas corpus had been suspended by fiat.