Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-Mo.) today became the second Senate Republican and third prominent conservative to suggest that Attorney General Eric Holder should resign over his decisions on terrorism cases.

Kit Bond (gov)

Bond, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has joined Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in calling for Holder’s resignation.

Conservatives have been critical of the administration’s decision to charge the alleged Christmas Day attempted airline bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in federal court as a criminal rather than put him in military custody for interrogation.

Bond said yesterday that John Brennan, President Obama’s chief homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, “needs to go” because of his role in the events surrounding the decision on how to handle alleged bomber.

And today, Bond told The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog, “I think Eric Holder has been totally wrong, and he should go too. It’s a question of trust,” adding: “They [Holder and Brennan] both came up short.”

Bond also took a dig at Holder for the Attorney General’s decision to try five alleged 9/11 plotters in a New York City federal court. The terrorism suspects will now likely be tried elsewhere after immense criticism from local politicians and members of Congress.

“Eric Holder said the 9/11 trial in New York will be the defining moment of his tenure,” Bond told the Washington Wire. “I hope it is.”

The White House has supported its national security leaders, according to the blog. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs earlier this week called on Bond to apologize for his barbs, the Washington Wire said.

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey spoke to Senate Republicans this afternoon, hours after he blasted Attorney General Eric Holder’s handling of the civilian trials for the five alleged planners of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Michael Mukasey

Republican leaders declined to say what Mukasey spoke about at the Senate GOP’s weekly lunch. The last Attorney General of the George W. Bush administration, Mukasey said on the Fox News program “Fox and Friends” this morning that Holder’s decision to try self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators in a New York civilian court made it look like “amateur night” at the DOJ.

“[Mukasey] has been a leader, as you know, not only as Attorney General, but since leaving as Attorney General, in helping everyone understand the difference between someone who tries to bomb a convenience store on one hand and someone who tries to blow up a plane on another,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said at press conference following the lunch meeting.

McConnell went on to praise Sen. Lindsey Graham for bipartisan legislation the South Carolina Republican unveiled today that would prohibit the DOJ from using funds to prosecute KSM and his alleged accomplices.

“I think the administration is going to retreat here,” the minority leader said.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill Tuesday, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair and FBI Director Robert Mueller testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the man who allegedly tried to ignite explosives in his underpants on a Dec. 25 Detroit-bound airplane flight as a civilian.

Sen. Christopher Bond (Mo.), the panel’s ranking Republican, criticized the Obama administration’s decision to treat Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a civilian.

The Republican senator said “treating terrorists like common criminals can cost us life-saving information.”

Mary Jacoby contributed to this report.

The Senate voted today to confirm a former U.S. Attorney to sit on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Beverly Martin, who served as a U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia from 1998 to 2000, will hear cases from Georgia, Alabama and Florida on the circuit court of appeals. She previously served as a U.S. District Court judge in Atlanta.

The Senate vote was 97-0. Sens. Christopher Bond (R-Mo.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) did not vote.

Martin is the fourth circuit court appointee by President Obama to win Senate confirmation. Five other nominees have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and await Senate floor action.

Sonia Sotomayor won Senate confirmation this afternoon to the Supreme Court by a vote of 68 to 31.

Only nine Republicans voted in favor of her confirmation. They were:

-Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.)

-Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.)

-Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine)

-Sen. Susan Collins (Maine)

-Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.)

-Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.)

-Sen. Christopher Bond (Mo.)

-Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.)

-Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio)

Here’s the Senate roll call vote: