Substitute in works for Griffin
Posted on Monday, March 5, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/183643/
A spokesman for U. S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ark., says the congressman has begun developing a list of potential replacements for Tim Griffin, interim U. S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Griffin, 38, said two weeks ago that he asked the U. S. Department of Justice not to submit his name to the U. S. Senate for consideration as a permanent replacement for Bud Cummins.
Cummins, 47, held the top prosecutorial post for the state’s Eastern District for five years, but resigned in late December, later saying the department asked him to step aside to give Griffin, a native Arkansan and former White House aide, an opportunity to hold the job.
Since then, reports have surfaced that the department has forced out at least seven other U. S. attorneys across the country two years before their terms would ordinarily end with the beginning of a new presidential administration. The reports led to a discovery that, unbeknownst to members of both parties who voted last year for the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, a section pertaining to the appointment of federal prosecutors had been quietly changed, removing a 120-day time limit on attorney general appointments of interim prosecutors.
Legislation has since been proposed to repeal the change or otherwise restrict the attorney general’s appointment authority.
Meanwhile, the department has steadfastly contended that it intends to put each of the interim U. S. attorneys through the Senate confirmation process, in which their character and qualifications would be subject to scrutiny. But no timetable has been given, leading to speculation that the department intends to have the interim appointees serve for the remainder of the Bush administration while escaping the usual scrutiny.
Griffin, a former military prosecutor — he served a stint in Iraq — and aide to White House political adviser Karl Rove, cited comments of U. S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and the general uproar about his appointment, including questions about his past work in opposition research for the Republican Party, in saying two weeks ago that he’d had enough.
“To submit my name to the Senate would be like volunteering to stand in front of a firing squad in the middle of a three-ring circus,” he said. “I have made the decision not to let my name go forward to the Senate.”
Griffin also said that he would continue to serve as the district’s top federal prosecutor until the administration chooses someone else to replace him. He acknowledged that could conceivably still leave him in the position for up to another 22 months, depending upon the speed with which a replacement is selected.
“Theoretically, it could, but I have every reason to believe the White House will find someone else and go through the process of Senate confirmation,” Griffin said Friday.
Boozman said shortly after Griffin’s announcement that he would start developing a list of potential candidates for the job, in consultation with the state’s Democratic senators, Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, as well as Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat.
As the lone Republican in the Arkansas delegation, the duty falls to Boozman to submit a name, or names, to the White House for consideration as the formal nominee who must then be approved by a vote of the U. S. Senate. Boozman’s press secretary, Ryan James, said Thursday that the congressman and his staff “are having conversations, and they’re going through names now. They’re just looking at possibilities. They haven’t come up with a list they would give to the White House, but the process is under way.” James described the discussion sessions as “a series of mini-meetings.” He said Boozman “hasn’t indicated, as such, a certain time line,” for developing an initial or final list, but noted that Boozman has a good relationship with both Pryor and Lincoln, and talks with each of them regularly.
“He intends to keep them in the loop,” James said.
Katie Laning and Michael Teague, press secretaries for Lincoln and Pryor, respectively, later confirmed that the delegation is indeed working as a team to narrow down a list of candidates.
“The three staffs have been in touch on the subject,” Laning said Thursday. “Senator Lincoln looks forward to collaborating with Senator Pryor and Congressman Boozman on a possible replacement.”
“They have talked,” Teague said, referring to Pryor and Boozman. “They’re in consultation. They’re not yet willing to share any names, but the process has begun on our level as well.”
Beebe’s press secretary, Matt DeCample, said late Thursday afternoon, “We’ve not heard from the Congressman, but of course our door is always open.”
The position of U. S. attorney is a political appointment, often used as a stepping stone to higher office, and typically lasts for the duration of the appointing president’s administration. Cummins has said he understands the political nature of the job and has no hard feelings about being asked to step aside.
He has also said he considers Griffin a friend, and considers him qualified. While Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said there were no performancerelated issues with Cummins, Cummins has said he was disturbed to hear the department blaming performance in at least some of the other U. S. attorney firings.
“They’re entitled to make these changes for any reason or no reason or even for an idiotic reason,” Cummins recently told The Washington Post. “But if they are trying to suggest that people have inferior performance to hide whatever their true agenda is, that is wrong. They should retract those statements.”
Democrats in Congress announced this week that they intend to question several of the fired U. S. attorneys under oath in an effort to find out whether the Bush administration forced them out to influence politically sensitive investigations.
That move was fueled by the contention of one of the fired U. S. attorneys, David Iglesias of New Mexico, that he was fired after he would not reveal information about a public corruption probe to two members of Congress who pressured him for information in separate calls before the November elections. He did not name the lawmakers.