Prosecutor Law To Change

Remember the uproar about the provision of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act that allowed the Attorney General to appoint US Attorneys without Senate confirmation. The early reports indicated that Senator Arlen Specter snuck the change in during negotiations. Well it turns out that Specter was a bit miffed when he heard he had submitted that change. Why, he would have remembered doing something that dastardly. It turns out that while Senator Specter didn't slip the language into the Patriot Act, one of his staff did insert it at the request of the Department of Justice. Apparently the Republican staffer forgot he worked for Senator Specter, or maybe he thought they both worked for the Karl Rove, who apparently was able to talk Alberto Gonzolas into appointing one of his political operatives US Attorney in Arkansas.

In any event it is being reported that the provison is on its way to being repealed. Apparently Justice and Senate Republicans aren't complaining now about the senate confirmation requirement. Instead they seem upset about a provision of the old law (now being restored in a bill sponsored by Senator Feinstein) that allows district court judges to appoint replacement US Attorneys if they are not confirmed within 120 days of nomination.

I wonder what other laws were enacted having never been reviewed by a single member of Congress. I guess we will find out as the 110th congress unfolds.


UPDATE Joe Conason has posted a very good discussion of this mess at Salon.com including information about the Specter staffer,Michael O'Neill, now a law professor at George Mason University, who evidently thought being a Clarence Thomas law clerk gave him the right to insert language in legislation without running it past his boss.