Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy said Tuesday he expects Michael Mukasey to be confirmed as the next attorney general.

“I like Judge Mukasey. . . . I want him to succeed,” Leahy, D-Vt., said, after his latest meeting with the former federal judge nominated by President Bush to replace Alberto R. Gonzales. “I see a man who has the potential to clean up the Department of Justice.”

Leahy’s committee has scheduled confirmation hearings for Mukasey beginning Wednesday. Although Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has not set a date for a Senate floor vote on Mukasey, Leahy said, “I would expect him to be confirmed.”

Gonzales announced his departure Aug. 27 amid controversy over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys last year and his views on the treatment of U.S. terror suspects and warrantless electronic surveillance. In Mukasey, Bush found a solidly conservative candidate with a reputation for independence.

At his confirmation hearing, Democrats are expected to grill Mukasey about lingering concerns from Gonzales’ tenure, including the dismissals, the National Security Agency’s foreign intelligence surveillance program and Justice Department guidelines for voter fraud cases.

Leahy said a “major factor” in the hearings would be issues surrounding a secret 2005 Justice Department memo, later acknowledged by the administration. First disclosed by The New York Times, the memo reportedly authorized the combined use of several harsh interrogation tactics, such as simulated drowning, head slapping and frigid temperatures, despite a public statement by the Justice Department in 2004 that torture was “abhorrent.”

Leahy said, “This administration is trying to define torture down.” He added, “The moral high ground has eroded out from under the United States.”