MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., says he will vote against Michael Mukasey's nomination as United States attorney general.

Feingold said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published Sunday that he thinks Mukasey's views on executive power have shifted recently toward the more expansive views of presidential power that President Bush's administration advances.

Feingold said he did not want to endorse those views with his vote.

"I think this is an historic moment that constitutional scholars with write about forever about the assertions of this administration. This doctrine of ever-expanding executive power over the ability of Congress to make laws has to stop," the Senate Judiciary Committee member said.

But Feingold said Mukasey was a better nominee in many ways than Alberto Gonzales, whom Bush has nominated him to succeed.

"I was certainly impressed with his credentials compared to Gonzales and his competence and his experience," the senator said. "He appeared to be far more professional in his approach to this very important job than Gonzales."

Sen. Herb. Kohl, D-Wis., who is also a member of the Judiciary Committee, said in a separate interview that he was weighing what he saw as Mukasey's attributes against his concerns about the nominee.

Kohl cited the Mukasey's refusal to characterize waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, as illegal torture.

"I think, to the average person, this is not all that complicated: Waterboarding. Torture. Illegal. Unconstitutional," Kohl said.

"Most people, I believe, would associate those four words together. The question then is his candor, his forthrightness. Is he independent?"

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Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com

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