Mukasey "alert" after collapsing during speech

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the no-nonsense ally in President Bush's war on terror, was hospitalized Thursday after he collapsed during a late-night speech and lost consciousness.

The 67-year-old Mukasey, wearing a black tie and tuxedo, was 15 to 20 minutes into an address about terrorism when he began shaking slightly and slurring his words. As he read from his prepared text, he seemed to get stuck on a word, paused, then his head bowed slightly and he swayed. Three or four men in suits rushed on stage and caught him at the podium.

"The attorney general is conscious, conversant and alert," Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said after doctors admitted Mukasey to George Washington University Hospital for the night.

Mukasey was on the stage for 10 minutes being attended to by his FBI detail before medics arrived, according to a Justice Department official at the scene. Mukasey was still breathing at the time, the official said.

Justice Department officials appeared anxious and alarmed at George Washington Hospital but Carr said Mukasey, the nation's top law-enforcement official, did not transfer his power to his second-in-command, Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip.

Justice spokeswoman Gina Talamona declined to say whether Mukasey had suffered a stroke. She had no information about his medical history.

Abigail Thernstrom, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who was at the dinner at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in northwest Washington, said Mukasey suddenly crumpled during his speech.

"It was hard to watch such a thing," Thernstrom said. "It was horrible."

In the prepared remarks of his address to the annual meeting of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, Mukasey planned to defend the Bush administration's "fundamental reorganization" of the government since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and policies put in place to detain terror suspects. He also was planning to talk about the continuing threat of al-Qaida.

President Bush was informed about Mukasey's collapse, press secretary Dana Perino said.

"The president has him in his thoughts and will be kept apprised and hopes that he will be back up and at 'em again soon," she said.

Bush, a fierce loyalist, ventured outside his circle of friends and Texas associates to tap Mukasey 14 months ago to replace Alberto Gonzales, who had resigned in disgrace.

In an announcement on the White House lawn, Bush introduced Mukasey as "a tough but fair judge" and asked the Senate to confirm him quickly.

Mukasey, the former chief U.S. District Court judge in the Manhattan courthouse just blocks from Ground Zero, earned a reputation as a tough-on-terrorism jurist with an independent streak. Before joining the administration, he was a partner at New York-based law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.