There is no way this man should be running the Justice Department - WaPo Editorial Board

[DonViejo]

Acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker in an undated photo. (Handout/Reuters)

By Editorial Board November 9 at 7:59 PM

IS MATTHEW G. WHITAKER the legitimate acting attorney general? From approximately the second President Trump ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions and tapped Mr. Whitaker to temporarily exercise the office’s vast authority, legal experts have sparred over whether Mr. Trump can unilaterally elevate someone from a role that does not require Senate confirmation to one that does. But regardless of whether the promotion is legal, it is very clear that it is unwise. Mr. Whitaker is unfit for the job.

Several prominent legal scholars point out that the Constitution demands that “principal officers” of the United States must undergo Senate confirmation. A 19th-century Supreme Court case suggests there may be limited room for temporary fill-ins, but Mr. Whitaker’s appointment is hardly so temporary; he could serve for most of the rest of Mr. Trump’s first term. Even if Mr. Whitaker’s promotion is constitutional, Congress passed a law governing Justice Department succession that also seems to prohibit Mr. Whitaker’s ascent. The department has a capable, Senate-confirmed deputy attorney general in Rod J. Rosenstein; he should be running the department in the absence of a permanent replacement.

The Senate above all should be offended by the president’s end run around its authority. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should demand hearings and consider filing a lawsuit. Instead, he is helping to establish a troubling precedent, saying only that he expects Mr. Whitaker to be a “very interim AG.” Yet no random official should be endowed with all the powers of an office as powerful as attorney general, meant for a Senate-vetted individual, even for a relatively short time. And Mr. Whitaker is worse than random. It took less than 24 hours for material to emerge suggesting he could not survive even a rudimentary vetting.

First, there are Mr. Whitaker’s statements criticizing the Russia probe of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. At the least, they require him to consult Justice Department ethics counsel about whether he can oversee the inquiry with a plausible appearance of evenhandedness. He will do immediate and lasting harm to the Justice Department’s reputation, and to the nation, if he assumes the role of president’s personal henchman and impedes the Mueller probe.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/there-is-no-way-this-man-should-be-running-the-justice-department/2018/11/09/f4a2ee60-e45e-11e8-8f5f-a55347f48762_story.html

[samnsara]

1. legal scholars alread said his appt is illegal and any action or order he does or gives can be

..challenged in court. Lets just hope so!

[dalton99a]

2. McConnell won't do shit. Democratic senators should file a lawsuit ASAP.

[Iowa420]

3. Not to mention he's a evangelical dominionist.

Matt Whitaker is an evangelical dominionist--one of the radicals now all over the administration who believe Christians must control every branch of government, the media, and the rest of the "Seven Mountains" of civic life.

[Hortensis]

5. Though I haven't been able to definitively confirm this, and

whether other terms would be more accurate, Christian reconstructionism, Christian nationalism, it's the kind of thing that's all too likely to be true. Kavanaugh also fits the pattern of authoritarian Christians who are being infiltrated into every area dominated by Repubilcan government.

Unfortunately, the media pretend religion is inappropriate for discussion. Cowards.

Mitt Romney believed god chose him to preside over Armageddon (!) and establish the capital for god's kingdom on a property the Mormon church purchased in the 1800s for that purpose. A man who said his entire life was dedicated to serving god his instruction from his diety, through some unspecified orifice, not the people, and the MSM never discussed it. Not even when Romney promised to increase the annual military budget enormously over what was requested and give the Navy a bunch of warships it didn't want (Trump also). $200B? Whatever, no big deal, no story there.

[Stuart G]

4. K and R nt.