US attorney general collapses during speech

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

"Oh, no, no!" people in the audience cried out as Mukasey slumped at the lectern. "Oh, my God!"

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 who was there. Mukasey was still breathing at the time, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.

Justice spokesman Peter Carr said Mukasey did not transfer his power to Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip.

She declined to say who was running the department or 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 crumbled during his speech. "It was horrible."

A Republican staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jack Daly, who was also at the dinner, said in an e-mail to colleagues: "AG Mukasey collapsed in the middle of his keynote address at tonight's fed-soc dinner. He is still on stage after ten minutes and his security detail has called 911. The paramedics just arrived."

Eighteen minutes later, Daly added in another e-mail: "Mukasey did regain consciousness before he was taken away."

Agencies

(China Daily 11/22/2008 page10)