Ted Olson a non-controversial choice? Am I missing something?

Let's get some JoeMentum going! Lieberman for AG!

I think Larry Craig would be great. I enjoy bathroom time with him.

2 K&S Alums!

Ted Olson got his ass kicked in the cases involving the right of habeus relief for the Gitmo detainees.

Ted Olson --

First they killed his wife. Then he went into retirement. Now the government needs him and is putting him in charge.

He's going after bin Laden.

Attorney General Olson. This time it's personal.

yeah, you are kidding about olson, right? either that or totally clueless. Only one current Democratic senator voted to confirm him as SG back in 01. If he couldn't get more than 51 votes out of a Republican Senate, he'd be in big trouble trying to get confirmed AG today...

Is that any relation to Robert Underdunk Terwilliger?

I couldn't really see Orrin Hatch giving up a easy seat in the senate to take a DoJ in which it will be impossible to do anything but damage control. I also doubt Clement would put himself in a place where he will need to decide between loyalty to the WH or overseeing a series of embarrassing investigations. Neither bode well for future career aspirations in public service (or confirmation in the Senate).

"Billy" thinks Ted Olson was noncontroversial, yet labels Chertoff "incompetent"? Where the hell is Lat? We need some adult supervision around here!

I'm all for Olson. He looks like Ronald Dworkin and sounds like Dick Van Dyke. What more could you want in an AG?

Recess appointment. No confirmation needed. Who would give up a Senate seat for one year of being AG for a lame duck.

Terwilliger went to the Antioch school of Law, a for profit predecessor to the current University of District Columbia School of law. If anything this is a fifth tier toilet, yet he is a partner at White and Case and a potential AG nominee. What the hell is wrong with L2L?

Doesn't the article say that the White House expressly refused to identify the 5 who are under consideration? And what about Judge Silberman?

Let's just say I work somewhere b/w 1599 and 1601 Penn. Ave., and I happen to be privy to this whole process. Anywho, the next AG will not be one of those five (or Chertoff). In fact, the next AG (who's already accepted by the way) will be quite a surprise, though a welcome one to most.

Clement comes off as a snotty, arrogant brat. Just listen to any Supreme Court oral argument where he is SG.

You people are idiots. Merck is no Lat - not catty enough - but even I got the sarcasm in the Olson reference, and I went to Regent.

Olson was a tougher sell in 2001 because he had just "kicked Al Gore's ass" to paraphrase another poster. His record as SG was much more moderate, and I doubt that he would be a tougher sell today. He was a WH outsider if you believe all of the recent stories swirling about an ailing Ashcroft and Gonzo.

Merck is no Lat b/c Merck is not funnier than a football bat...

It is a bit saddening that Jay Sekulow still does not appear to be on the short list despite his conservative credentials and amazing record of achievement in arguing before the Supreme Court. I can see why Bush may prefer to pick someone else in the end, but Sekulow at least would deserve serious consideration.

6:57:

Uh, your job is to stand outside and look at the White House across the street?

I'm really hoping that Billy was being sarcastic when he talked about Orrin Hatch not wanting the job. It didn't much sound like he was, but as 7:52 points out, it apparently takes a special kind of intellect to understand his sarcasm.

At any rate, at least one other poster on here hass questioned Hatch's desire to leave his Senate job and take the AG job. He must not be from Utah. Anyone even mildly acquainted with Senator Hatch knows that he'd be giddier than a school girl who just got her first kiss if Bush were to offer him the job. I'm pretty sure the Senator has even publicly stated that he'd take the job if offered. In fact, he's been making statements like that for more than a month now. If there's anyone who wants Gonzo's job, it's definitely Senator Hatch.

The real question is if he's actually being considered. He's not exactly the sharpest legal mind in the world (last year he tried sponsoring legislation that would have virtually made the internet illegal) and yet, almost every time a position like this opens up his name almost always finds itself in the mix. But, seriously, does anyone really think that anyone ever seriously entertained the idea of Justice Hatch? I think what were seeing here is what happens when you combine a Senator with an overly ambitious staff and news writers willing to publish any rumor someone on the Hill will give them.

Also, I wonder what Hatch's confirmation hearings would look like. My guess is that, in the end, he'd be confirmed, but it'd be ugly. Really ugly. His complete unwillingness to say anything remotely critical of Gonzo in recent Senate hearings wouldn't set well with most Senators. I think anyone who knows Hatch would agree that if there's anyone in the world more willing to be the President's lapdog than AGAG was, it's Senator Hatch.

Merck: Your use of the royal "we" is getting a bit sloppy. "We took a class from Thompson in Anti-Terrorism and Criminal Procedure at UGA Law," but "I'm not sure [Hatch]'s interested [in the AG position]." Who else at ATL went to UGA Law?

Fed Soc - that's hilarious. Jay Sekulow? Fortunately, for the country, the AG is responsible for more than litigating against the ACLU and eating Pat Robertson's pasty, yet tasty, ass.

11:49: Seeing as your boy Clinton had no problem appointing Sekulow's left-wing counterpart, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to a position far more prestigious than that of Attorney General, I am not sure what is so "hilirious" about my suggestion of Sekulow.

Ginsburg, former general counsel to the ACLU (equivalent to Sekulow's position with the ACLJ) was confirmed nearly unanimously to the Supreme Court by a Republican Senate despite the fact that she had expressed support for lowering the age of consent to 12 and for a constitutional right to prostitution. Sekulow has never expressed support for any view that extreme, so if the Democrats had the same view on deference to presidential appointments as the Republicans, Sekulow would have no problem getting confirmed either as AG or Supreme Court justice.

How about Gale Norton? Libertarian AG? That's what I'm talkin' about.

Fed Soc --
RBG had 13 years on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals when Clinton nominated her to the Supreme Court. She also had very strong academic credentials: 8 years as a professor at Rutgers and 8 as a professor at Columbia. She was a lot more than a liberal version of Jay Sekulow.

Sam Waterson for AG!!!

Our USA suddenly had to go out of town Sunday to Tuesday, and we haven't heard anything from him this week. We're all wondering...

anon AUSA:

Which office? C'mon, don't leave us hangin!

West coast, one of the replacements. It's probably nothing, but the timing and sudden decision (Sunday afternoon) to be out of town is very strange. At the very least, I suspect he's involved in the selection process.

Fed Soc,

You must be a troll pretending to be a conservative.

Nobody can be that stupid!

Let's not forget that if not for Ten Olson's post election apellate litigation efforts, we might be writing about President Gore. Not to mention that Olson's wife was killed on 9/11--making him a sentamental favorite.

But does Olson want the job?

I second Sam Waterson for AG. But I think Sam might be holding for a VP nod in case Fred Thompson takes the GOP nomination.

Fed Soc -- The RBG myth that she was some crazy liberal is complete bs, and anyone with half a brain knows it. In her 12 years as Circuit Judge on the DC Circuit she had been extremely moderate and was well respected across the board. In her tenure as Supreme Court Justice she has been the same -- not even close to a Brennan or Marshall type movement liberal, or even close to Stevens or Blackmun. Compared to Alito & Roberts (both good jurists), she is extremely moderate. Even on women's issues, where she is known to be the most ideological, she still rejected the Clinton Administration's suggestion to adopt strict scrutiny for gender discrimination cases in US v. Virginia. I can't imagine Alito or Roberts not going along with something similar on the other side, and indeed they have (witness their affirmative action decisions, campaign finance and worst of all the Ledbetter decision which was just a complete joke).

You are completely twisting her previous views by the way, but I don't want to get into it with an obvious clown/hack. The Federalist Society is generally a respectable group of people who know what they are talking about. You should stop posting in their name.