Marshall's right - the president's likely never needed a friendlier AG than right now, but will it be politically possible to replace Gonzalez (when he eventually resigns) with such a person? And who else could he name? We know Bush loves his in-group of loyalists, but given that so many of them are implicated in scandals at the moment ...
I guess he could look beyond Gonzalez at Justice and pull in the solicitor general, or maybe one of his judicial nominees (Peter Keisler?). Given the support he's going to need in Congress it might be a good time to make nice with the congressional Republicans and name someone like Sen. John Cornyn (a former AG in Texas) or Rep. Dan Lungren (a former AG in California) - but would a senator want to give up his post to serve for a year and a half at the end of a scandal-tarred administration? It'll be a revealing choice, whoever it turns out to be.
Posted by armand at March 16, 2007 01:43 PM | TrackBack | Posted to PoliticsThere's always James Baker, I suppose. :-P
Posted by: jacflash at March 16, 2007 02:54 PM | PERMALINKFyi, Orin Kerr has brought up former Deputy AG Larry Thompson, and of course there's a thread on this over at Above the Law, where Lat's proposed Patrick Fitzgerald.
Posted by: Armand at March 17, 2007 10:09 AM | PERMALINK