also at Lutton Square
(h/t to various TPM Muckraker commenters)
The prosecutor purge scandal seems to gravitate around some very interesting machinations involving the candidates for United States Attorney for the District of Utah.
When the position opened up in early 2006, two candidates–one from the executive branch and one from the legislative–surfaced. A former White House staffer and then Chief of Staff for the Attorney General, Kyle Sampson, was favored by White House and Department of Justice officials, while influential Utah Senator and former Senate Judiciary Chair Orrin Hatch preferred former Utah federal prosecutor and Judiciary staffer Brett Tolman.
President Bush finally nominated Tolman for the position in June, 2006, after the renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act in early March. According to then Senate Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter, Tolman arranged for the Patriot Act renewal to include–via Senator Specter’s chief counsel, Michael O’Neill–the now infamous clause allowing the president to appoint US Attorneys indefinitely while bypassing the Senate confirmation process.
With two candidates, one a White House pick and the other a Senators’ pick, the White House gets new power to indefinitely appoint future US Attorneys, while the Senators’ get their guy the post in Utah.
Quid pro quo? You decide…