Capital Hijinks

By now we are all familiar with the story of how Senator Spector's "chief legal counsel,"Michael O'Neill, unknown to the "clueless" Senator, inserted finely crafted language into the USA Patriot Act stripping the Senate of its power to confirm replacement US Attorneys. The AG appoints an interim for an indeterminate term, no replacement necessary. We have all heard how Kyle Sampson said the administration should use that new law to avoid the need to seek the approval of those pesky home state Senators when they replaced the fired US Attorneys. Well this morning we learn that the idea for the law change came from David Collins a Los Angeles lawyer who emailed William Moschella, principal associate deputy attorney general the idea back in 2004. Apparently Collins doesn't like the idea of US Courts appointing interim US Attorneys if the replacement US Attorney isn't promptly confirmed by the Senate. Well according to Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor of McClatchy Newspapers

Moschella, principal associate deputy attorney general, said that he pursued the changes on his own, without the knowledge or coordination of his superiors at the Justice Department or anyone at the White House.

Let me see if I understand this a former Deputy US Attorney comes up with an idea. He emails a mid level deputy friend of his at Justice who apparently puts a bug in the ear of a Senate staffer who inserts important language into the USA Patriot Act stripping the Senate of a long held and highly prized power to confirm US Attorneys. At no time did any elected Representative or Senator, or senior Administration official know about the change. Sounds like a Jedi mind tricks to me.

Fire the State Department and the CIA. Hire the team of Moschella, Collins and O'Neill to run the whole thing. Damn they are good.

If there isn't a Saturday Night Live or Daily Show skit in this story, the boys and girls at those shows aren't trying.

UPDATE: I just remembered something. Here is the text of part of Spector's statement of what happened when the Patriot Act was changed.

Prior to the PATRIOT Act, U.S. attorneys were replaced by the Attorney General for 120 days and then appointments by the Court or the First Assistant succeeded to the position of U.S. Attorney. The PATRIOT Act gave broader powers to the Attorney General to appoint replacement U.S. Attorneys. I then contacted my very-able Chief Council Michael O’Neill to find out exactly what had happened. Mr. O’Neill advised me that the requested change had come from the Department of Justice, that it had been handled by Brett Tolman, who is now the US Attorney for Utah.

Isn't Brett Tolman the guy who got the US Attorney job Kyle Sampson wanted? Wasn't Sampson the AG's Chief of Staff? Not only did they screw the Senate out of a long held power they screwed Kyle Sampson out of his dream job as well. Wow, these second and third level AG and Judiciary Committee staffers are good.

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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.

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