The New Attorney General

www.nndb.com

Given how long it took me to get the last post done, I've decided to give a little less background on this one. By now, I'm sure you have your own opinion on the firing of the US Attorneys. I think it's a glaring example of the fact that you can fire someone for no reason much more easily than you can fire someone for a bad reason (and sometimes even a good one).

My assessment is that President Bush had the authority to fire these US Attorneys, but he, or his staff, did not want it to look political, so they covered things up. In politics, it's always the cover-up that brings you down. Unless your last name is Clinton.

I'm more interested in making a couple of predictions. First, as you may have guessed from the title, I believe Attorney General Gonzales' days are numbered. Even a spectacular performance before Congress today probably won't save him for the long term. In fact, some have argued that the only reason he still has the job is that the President has no desire to send a nominee through a Democrat controlled Congress.

So here's my prediction (which my Dad thought was really slick) -- Attorney General Tom Ridge.

www.iflipflop.com

Why? I'll give you 5 reasons:

1) He's already been through a Senate confirmation as the first Homeland Security Secretary.
2) He's a former Congressman, so he may get some votes on old favors and friendship.
3) At the time he was in Congress, he was the only former enlisted man ("grunt" was his term) there. (There were many other veterans among the Congressmen/women, but they had been officers.) Voting against him, therefore, can probably be spun as unpatriotic. Plus, he might take what will likely be a messy job out of a sense of duty.
4) He was a Bush favorite -- in fact, some speculated that he took the Homeland Security post with the understanding that he would be given the VP nod if Cheney couldn't/didn't run in 2004.
5) As far as I know, he's just working in the private sector.

It also wouldn't surprise me if President Bush made a point of offering it to a Democrat in an attempt to take back control of the Senate. Maybe even an Independent Democrat, i.e., Attorney General Lieberman. I don't think anyone will fall for this.

www.boston.com

As unattractive as the job will look by then, they may just have to give it to the first person who will take it. I hear there are 8 excellent attorneys with high level government experience recently out of work.