It's fun enough that New Yorkers stand a good chance of snagging both major-party presidential nominations in 2008. As it turns out, NYC's invasion of the capital has already begun. Judge Michael Mukasey — George Bush's somewhat conciliatory pick of an attorney general to succeed Alberto Gonzales — is as far from the president's Texas-gang talent pool as it gets. In fact, he's a born-and-bred conservative Jewish New Yorker; the sound you just heard was the New York Sun editorial staff having a collective orgasm.

How much of a homeboy is Mukasey? More than Hillary, that's for sure. Let's count the ways:

1. Born in the Bronx.
2. Went to an Orthodox yeshiva on the Upper East Side.
3. Graduated from Columbia.
4. Worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District…
5. …And so did his son, Marc.
6. Presided over the trial of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the mastermind of the 1993 WTC bombing.
7. Swore in Rudy Giuliani, both in 1994 and 1998.
8. Buddies with the (Democratic) Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau.
9. Represented both the Wall Street Journal and the Daily News in private practice.
10. Never met Bush before this September.

A Washington Outsider With Many Sides [NYT]
Bush’s Pick Faces First Test [NYS]