NYT editorial: The Next Attorney General

[DeepModem Mom]

The Next Attorney General
Published: September 13, 2007

....The next attorney general will have an enormous amount of damage to undo. There is considerable evidence that United States attorneys have been coerced into using their offices to help Republicans win elections. The orders may have come directly from the White House. Top officials of the Justice Department have admitted that they evaluated lawyers for nonpolitical jobs based on their politics. And Congress is investigating whether Georgia Thompson, a Wisconsin civil servant, and Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, were sent to jail to help Republicans win governorships in those states....

Unfortunately, President Bush does not appear to be considering a nominee who would do these things. The first name on his list is reportedly Theodore Olson, who may be best remembered for representing Mr. Bush in Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court case that stopped the vote recount in Florida after the 2000 election. He was also on the board of the American Spectator magazine, which conducted the “Arkansas Project,” a well-funded campaign to dig up dirt on Bill and Hillary Clinton....

Among other lawyers who are said to be under consideration, George J. Terwilliger III, another lead lawyer in Bush v. Gore, and Laurence Silberman, a federal appeals court judge, are also far too partisan. The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, whose name has been floated, should be ruled out both because of his partisan record and his disastrous performance during Hurricane Katrina.

The administration is clearly in a bind. If it appoints an attorney general who is not a political ally, it runs the risk that he or she would seriously investigate improprieties that could reach the White House itself. But the administration’s desire to stonewall cannot be the deciding factor in how the next attorney general is chosen.

It is heartening that Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, promised yesterday to block Mr. Olson if he is nominated. The Senate needs to hold firm against him, and any other political partisans the Bush administration may come up with. It should insist on an attorney general with integrity and political independence and refuse to confirm anyone else.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/opinion/13thu1.html?hp

[rfranklin]

1. This from the newspaper that speared Gore and banged...

the drum for the invasion of Iraq. Gee, do you dudes ever stop and think about how we got here?

Bush will get an AG who will stonewall for him.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. There is a wall between the NYT editorial page and its news pages...

as there is at most papers. While the NYT editorial page was not perfect in the lead-up to the war, a recent study found it and the LAT the most anti-war ed. pages among the major papers. The page endorsed both Gore and Kerry.

And, sadly, I agree -- Bush will probably get the AG he wants.

[Demeter]

3. Instead of the AG He Deserves

Trying to imagine such a creature--something less (or more) than human....the TERMINATOR (and not the actor that played him)!