We’ve written in the past about the Bush Administration’s purge of trouble-making U.S. Attorneys nationwide. In you don’t know the story, read up, because it is some legitimately scary stuff. Talking Points Memo, who has been following the story more closely than anyone, uncovered the fact that Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) enabled the purge by slipping a small provision into the Patriot Act reauthorization at the Bush Administration’s request that gave the administration increased control over Attorney hirings and firings.
Democrats have pressed the White House on this and in a hearing on the subject today, Specter defended his action as having reasonable intentions and unintended results. From TPM:
According to the original law, the Attorney General could appoint interim U.S. Attorneys, but if they were not nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate within 120 days of being appointed, the federal district court would appoint a replacement. Justice Department officials apparently didn’t like that judges were able to appoint U.S. Attorneys, members of the executive branch, so the new language removed the court’s involvement in the process. But in doing that, the change also allowed the administration to handpick replacements and keep them there in perpetuity.
Specter, who has been one of only a few Republicans to regularly challenge the administration’s overreach of power in the past, said today that he hopes to change the law back to its original version.
