Now how about this for a great idea? An Attorney General fiercely dedicated to the rule of law, politics notwithstanding?
Sounds good? Well, read more in today's entry on the Washington Post's Bench Conference blog.
...select quotes after the jump...
It makes perfect sense in every way. Cohen starts out by listing the qualities to look for in an AG.
Clearly, the next head of the Department of Justice must be many of the things that Gonzales is not. The new chief must be strong and independent -- and with a long history of being a successful federal prosecutor. He or she must not be beholden to the White House or be an ideologue. He or she must possess the respect of the foot soldiers within the Department of Justice and thus be able to restore some of the lost credibility, confidence and morale that marks the current regime. And, of course, he or she must be a Republican.
Cohen then describes the immediate steps the next AG should take to clean up the stench of the prosecutor purge
The next attorney general, Fein said Thursday, should immediately "issue a memorandum to the Congress and to the White House" informing both "that any gripes about prosecutors they may have should be funneled through the Attorney General and not through the prosecutors themselves." Another memo Fein would write, he told me, would be to remind U.S. Attorneys that they must immediately report any improper conduct or pressure--of the sort that occurred here with at least one federal prosecutor--brought by members of Congress or executive branch officials. And, for good measure, Fein would want the next Attorney General to get a public commitment from the President to abide by those rules.
It's too good to be true, for the obvious reason that (as Cohen notes) there's no way Bush is going to hand the reins of the Justice Department to a guy who took down Libby (what a great first Cabinet meeting that would be, with Cheney scowling at the table) and who knows if Fitz would want the gig. But he showed himself during the Libby trial to be a relentless and dogged prosecutor who only cared about the truth and despises public corruption. He's the kind of AG even a Democratic President could love, and what a statement of bipartisanship that would be should the Dems take the WH in 2008.
But hey, we can dream, right?