The Obama administration is faced with a tough challenge: trying to look bi-partisan when it comes to serving up justice while taking advantage of all the political plums available.
By Mary Jacoby
WASHINGTON — In March, the Washington Post reported that several highly political Bush-appointed U.S. Attorneys were seeking to stay in their posts, prompting fears on the Left that President Obama would leave a cadre of conservative prosecutors in place across the country.
There’s been chatter that some prosecutors are trying to exploit the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal by arguing that if they were replaced now, the Obama administration would be politicizing the Justice Department in the same manner as the Bush White House did.
This argument, of course, is ludicrous: U.S. Attorneys are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president.
It’s true that these powerful law enforcement officials are supposed to administer justice without regard to partisan politics – an issue that was at heart of the U.S. Attorneys firing uproar as it became clear that prosecutors such as David Iglesias in New Mexico were being ousted for refusing to pursue cases against Democrats.
