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Obama U.S. Attorney Appointee Numbers Trail Bush, Clinton

By Andrew Ramonas

President Barack Obama did not install enough U.S. Attorneys during his more than a year and a half in office to meet the pace set by his last two predecessors, according to a Main Justice analysis of the presidential appointments.

Obama has appointed 66 U.S. Attorneys, while former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton each installed 81 of the prosecutors during the first 19 months of their administrations. But the president has another 10 U.S. Attorney nominees waiting in the wings. There are 93 U.S. Attorney posts located throughout the nation.

Richard Rossman (NAFUSA)

Rich Rossman, president of the National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys, told Main Justice that the pace of appointments is ?very discouraging.? Rossman, who was speaking for himself and not on behalf of the organization that includes more than 200 ex-U.S. Attorneys, said he is disappointed in the speed the Senate and the White House are moving through the process.

?I have no criticism of the people who are actually managing these offices and are in the positions that they?re in, but I do believe that each president is entitled to appoint his own candidates and that there ought to be a respectful and swift confirmation process for those candidates,? said Rossman, who led the Eastern District of Michigan U.S. Attorney?s Office from 1980 to 1981. ?And I think that ? my guess is that this has been the slowest process and the least number of presidentially appointed persons actually put in place [thus far] into the administration in the history of these appointments.?

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who is the chairman of the Senate panel that considers U.S. Attorney nominees, blamed Republicans for the pace of the confirmations, telling Main Justice that GOP senators held up some U.S. Attorney nominees for ?months and months and months.?

He said Republican delays are discouraging to prospective U.S. Attorneys.

?We have people who don?t want the job because of [the delays],? Leahy said.

A Republican aide told Main Justice that the Senate?s work on U.S. Attorney nominations slowed down during the consideration of Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. But the aide said GOP senators are not to blame for the pace because Democrats schedule U.S. Attorney votes in committee and on the Senate floor.

A White House spokesman declined comment to Main Justice.

U.S. Attorneys appointed by Bush remain at the helm of eight districts.

There were only three Clinton U.S. Attorneys who remained in office by this time in the Bush administration. There was one U.S. Attorney appointed by President George H.W. Bush who remained in office at this point in the Clinton presidency. (Clinton dismissed all the U.S. Attorneys when he took office. He only reappointed the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.)

U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding (DOJ)

The Obama administration has indicated that two of the U.S. Attorneys ? Patrick Fitzgerald of the Northern District of Illinois and Jim Letten of the Eastern District of Louisiana ? will be kept in place. Another U.S. Attorney, George E.B. Holding of the Eastern District of North Carolina, will also likely stay on until his office completes its work on investigations into two high-profile Democrats: former Gov. Mike Easley and two-time presidential candidate, ex-Sen. John Edwards. One of the Bush U.S. Attorneys, Rod Rosenstein of Maryland, could also serve well into the Obama administration, since his state?s Democratic senators haven?t appeared to push for someone to replace him.

But three Bush-appointed U.S. Attorneys could soon be on their way out if the Senate confirms their would-be successors.

Obama nominated Michael C. Ormsby on March 2 to succeed U.S. Attorney James A. McDevitt of the Eastern District of Washington. The president also tapped Robert O?Neill on June 9 to replace U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton of the Middle District of Florida. Mark Green on July 14 received his nomination to succeed U.S. Attorney Sheldon J. Sperling in the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

Though a U.S. Attorney appointed by Bush, Leura Canary of the Middle District of Alabama, will likely remain in office until at least the end of the year, despite opposition from state Democrats. Rep. Artur Davis, the senior House Democrat in Alabama, recommended criminal defense lawyer George Beck Jr. for the post, but Obama has yet to nominate her successor.

“It’s incredibly frustrating,? G. Douglas Jones, who served as the Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney during the Clinton administration, told Main Justice earlier this month.

The Bush holdovers: Rod Rosenstein (Md.); Patrick Fitzgerald (N. Ill.); Leura Canary (Middle Ala.); and Jim Letten (E. La.) (DOJ)

Another 19 offices are led by either acting, interim or court-appointed U.S. Attorneys. Interim or court-appointed U.S. Attorneys have led three offices — in the Eastern District of Arkansas, Southern District of Indiana and Puerto Rico — for at least the last two and a half years. The other 16 offices are led by prosecutors who took control after October 2008.

Of the 19 offices, six of them have Obama nominees waiting in the wings. The majority of the remaining 13 offices that don?t have nominees are in Southern states with Republican leanings.

The lack of Obama U.S. Attorney nominees for offices in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi has been a particularly sore spot for Democrats.

Democratic Arkansas Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor in May 2009 recommended three candidates for each of the state?s two U.S. Attorney?s offices. Later that year, a black state prosecutor also was added to the list for the U.S. Attorney post in the Western District of Arkansas.

But two candidates for U.S. Attorney have since withdrawn their names from consideration.

The state prosecutor withdrew his name from consideration of the U.S. Attorney post in the Western District of Arkansas earlier this year amid rising frustration among black leaders in the state. Another candidate to lead the Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. Attorney?s Office withdrew this summer.

Lincoln, the senior senator in Arkansas, faces a difficult battle for her reelection after winning a contentious Democratic primary earlier this year in a state where Obama is not well-liked.

A spokesman for Lincoln did not have an immediate comment for Main Justice.

In Texas, a battle is raging between the state?s Republican senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the chairman of the Texas Democratic House delegation, over who gets to make recommendations for the four U.S. Attorney posts in the state.

Senators traditionally make recommendations for presidential appointees since the Senate votes on nominees. But the responsibility will often fall on House members who are in the same party as the president when both of the state?s senators are not in the president?s party.

Doggett and the Texas senators submitted their own lists of U.S. Attorney candidates to the White House last fall. They agreed on two U.S. Attorney candidates, one of whom Obama nominated in February to lead the Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney?s Office. But he withdrew his name from consideration in April.

A spokeswoman for the Doggett did not have an immediate comment for Main Justice.

Obama also hasn?t nominated U.S. Attorneys for the two offices in Mississippi. Rep. Bennie Thompson is taking the lead on selecting U.S. Attorney candidates for the state?s congressional Democrats because Mississippi?s senators are Republicans.

Thompson has only formally recommended one U.S. Attorney candidate. But that U.S. Attorney hopeful for the Northern District of Mississippi doesn?t appear to be the frontrunner anymore. A state senator and an Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Southern District of Mississippi now seem to be the top candidates for the Northern District post.

A spokesman for Thompson declined comment to Main Justice.

Full post as published by Main Justice on September 17, 2010 (boomark / email).