Talk:Bush administration U.S. attorney firings controversy/Firings and activities of fired U.S. attorneys

Patterns in the replacement of Attorneys
According to a study by the Washington Post based on government records and biographical information, an estimated one-third of the second-term replacement attorneys appointed by the Bush administration were previously employed staff in the White House or the Department of Justice. According to the Washington Post, many of the replacements also had either relatively little experience as prosecutors, little familiarity with their districts, or both. However, the majority of the U.S. attorneys named since 2005 have bee relatively traditional choices, such as career prosecutors who naturally moved to the top positions in their district based off of their own merit. The study surmised that the plan of the administration was to ask for the resignation of attorneys who did not adhere to the administration's agenda and then "seed federal prosecutors' offices with people on whom they can depend to carry out the administration's agenda." A spokesman for the Department of Justice acknowledged that a number of insiders were chosen as replacements, but also stated that there was no deliberate effort to do so.

Examples of Replacements:


 * Bradley J. Schlozman: Interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. Was a deputy in Justice's civil rights division who helped overrule career government lawyers in approving a Texas redistricting plan pushed by Tom DeLay (R-Texas).  He had never been a prosecutor before.


 * John Wood: Was counsel to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty before being chosen as a replacement U.S. attorney.


 * Scott Schools: Was general counsel for the Justice office that oversees U.S. attorneys and led the internal probe of the office of the fired prosecutor he is replacing, Kevin V. Ryan in San Francisco.

SW: patriot act
Missing from the page, I think, is mention of the fact that the recent reauthorization of the patriot act allowed the replacements to bypass senate confirmation, another first.


 * If you read the section on the Patriot Act, it clearly states that nominations would bypass Senate confirmation. It does not, as you mention, directly state that replacements would bypass Senate confirmation. Artificial Intelligence 04:31, 30 April 2007 (EDT)