By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — Deputy Attorney Gen. James Cole never played in the National Football League — but he certainly knows what it’s like to be a football — a political one at that.
David A. Fahrenthold of the Washington Post reports that the Republicans in the Senate on Monday voted to block a bid by Democrats to force a final vote on Cole’s confirmation, leaving his status as the number 2 person in the Justice Department in limbo.
President Obama gave Cole a recess appointment, which expires at the end of the year.
The Post reported that the Dems on Monday fell short of the 60 votes needed to knock down a Republican filibuster vote on the matter.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said, according to a statement posted on his website: ” It is hard to believe that one week after the successful operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the world’s number one terrorist, we cannot take this step to ensure that President Obama has his full national security team in place. Now that a measure of justice has been secured for the victims of September 11, I have expressed hope that we can come together as we did in the weeks and months following September 11.”
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Ia) who strongly opposed the nomination, said:
“In particular, I’m seriously concerned about Mr. Cole’s views on national security and terrorism. Back in 2002, Mr. Cole was the author of an opinion piece in the Legal Times. In that piece, he stated, ‘For all the rhetoric about war, the Sept. 11 attacks were criminal acts of terrorism against a civilian population, much like the terrorist acts of Timothy McVeigh in blowing up the federal building in Oklahoma City, or of Omar Abdel-Rahman in the first effort to blow up the World Trade Center. The criminals responsible for these horrible acts were successfully tried and convicted under our criminal justice system, without the need for special procedures that altered traditional due process rights.’”
