Attorney's General

Having politically appointed US Attorneys is a bad idea. An awful lot of our recent AG's have come close to running afoul of the law, and one (John Mitchell) made it to the slammer. Earlier, I linked to and quoted an Alan Dershowitz piece suggesting that the law enforcement and political aspects of the AG's office be separated. A minimal step in that direction would be to make the USA's and other prosecutorial staff career employees rather than political appointees. Besides eliminating lots of opportunities for mischief, this would obviate the need for special prosecutors, independent prosecutors and the like.

Any thoughts, readers?

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