It's the Politicization, Stupid (Opposition to Ted Olson)

Rumor has it that President Bush may appoint former Solicitor General Ted Olson to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who resigned last month (Washington Post-1). Senate Democrats voiced opposition to Olson (Washington Post-2).

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that "any holdup of the yet-to-be-named nominee would make hypocrites of Democrats who urged Bush to swiftly name Gonzales' successor" (NY Times).

I'm convinced that McConnell is only pretending to not get it.  Ted Olson may be a great lawyer, but his past is heavily tainted by partisan politics (WaPo and  The Hill). Digging into history, Mercury Rising points out:

"As Assistant Attorney General during the Reagan Administration, Olson tried to block an investigation into Superfund corruption by giving false testimony to Congress; he was cited for contempt of court and avoided perjury charges on a technicality...."

Gonzales came under fire because voluminous evidence suggests that the Justice Department had become highly politicized under him: evidence that includes testimony from former Justice Department officials that are mostly Republicans. 

Since January, nine high-level Justice Department employees have resigned amid the politicization scandal (maybe it was 10, I've lost count).  For details, see BN-Politics' section on the Justice Dept. & Fired U.S. Attorneys.

Our nation has hundreds of judges, legal scholars and career prosecutors who are not political animals to the extent that Olson is. If President Bush is serious about fixing (de-politicizing) the Justice Department, then he'll make a new list of qualified but less-political people from which to choose Attorney General nominees.

Comments

[MEC]

"If Bush is serious about fixing (de-politicizing) the Justice Department" ... then pigs will fly.

Maybe Karl Rove resigned from his White House job so he'd be available for the Attorney General post. He's not a lawyer, but in the Bush Administration, lack of qualification is no hindrance.

[Charles]

I think Republicans regard perjury during hearings as a job qualification. Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas, Alito, Olson.... The list of people who said things material to the job for which they were interviewing and which really don't appear to be true is growing long.

[The Crux]

Yes, Charles: that does seem to be the case. Kay Bailey Hutchison publicly stated that perjury isn't a real crime (or was it obstruction of justice) when talking about Scooter Libby. I doubt she'd come to our rescue if one of us tried lying to a court or thwarting a police investigation.