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• Tuesday, December 2, 2008 09:14 AM

  A word about the expectation of sleaze

  I did want to make one comment about the expectation that the AG would be a sleazeball. Its one thing to assume that about most appointments--and I did--but those such as AG have often been used by Democratic presidents to demonstrate a level of non-partisanship and committment to the rule of law, at least for the purposes of prestige and legacy. These have often been career prosecutors or judges (which of course does not automatically make them saints, far from it) who have not had the opportunities to bathe in the insider muck of dc. Janet Reno, whatever you may say about her run, was seemingly one of these.

  Say what you want about those who have unrealistically high expectations for Obama, in the appointment of AG, they would have had a good reason to expect a better pick. Democratic administrations have typically chosen civil servants and career judges who've done very little defense work--at least in the recent period. Ramsey Clark comes to mind, there are some others I'm less sure about going back to the Johnson and Kennedy eras.

  In any case, I did have a higher expectation of the AG appointment. Given the state of our foreign policy, I also thought he'd go a different way with the SoS. This is one case where I'm actually surprised and somewhat disappointed.

  —omooex Read omooex's other letters
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