WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey said farewell to Justice Department employees Thursday, praising their dedication and poking fun at himself for a health scare last year.

Mukasey, a former federal judge from New York, became the country's 81st attorney general in November 2007 and spent much of his tenure trying to prove the department was free from political manipulation after his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, left under fire over the dismissal of federal prosecutors.

He took the helm of the Justice Department at a tumultuous time, with critics in Congress and elsewhere contending the agency's decision-makers had put politics before fairness. As Mukasey prepares to depart a year later, the agency is bracing for what may be sweeping changes in anti-terror policies under President-elect Barack Obama.

With just days left in his tenure, Mukasey told employees that the Justice Department has instituted reforms to protect itself from undue influence and is now thriving with high standards and high spirits.

In saying goodbye, Mukasey also made light of his fainting spell in the middle of a Nov. 20 speech, when he collapsed midsentence. After a brief hospital stint he quickly returned to work.

Mukasey cracked that many of those gathered for his farewell speech are probably asking, "Can the attorney general get through a speech and remain vertical?"

Obama's choice to succeed Mukasey is former Clinton administration official Eric Holder, but the pick awaits confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

As a presidential candidate, Democrat Barack Obama repeatedly criticized the Bush administration for its legal policies in the war on terror, and the incoming administration is expected to make dramatic changes in how the government tracks, catches and holds terror suspects.

Mukasey acknowledged that Eric Holder may chart a very different course for the nation's top law enforcement agency _ and he said that was to be expected.

"We have administrations in this country, not regimes. Regardless of what differences of policy one administration may have from another, you help ensure that they administer a system of making policy choices within the law," he told the assembled lawyers and staff.