The White House decided today not to name the Connecticut acting U.S. Attorney as its nominee to lead the state’s U.S. Attorney’s office.

David Fein (Wiggin and Dana)

Nora Dannehy (DOJ)

Instead President Obama tapped Stamford, Conn., lawyer David Fein, a partner at Wiggin and Dana, to be the state’s top federal prosecutor. He would replace acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, who has led the office since Kevin O’Connor resigned in 2006.

Dannehy was among the finalists recommended for Connecticut U.S. Attorney by Nutmeg State Sens. Christopher Dodd (D) and Joseph Lieberman (I) in September.

The senators had also recommended Edgardo Ramos, a partner at the law firm Day Pitney and former federal prosecutor in New York’s Eastern District; and William Tong, an associate with the law firm Finn, Dixon & Herling and a state representative who serves on the legislature’s Judiciary Committee.

Fein, like Dannehy, has prosecutorial experience. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York from 1989 to 1995, serving as deputy chief of the criminal division and counsel to the U.S. Attorney during his tenure at the Manhattan-based office. He also was an associate White House counsel to President Clinton from 1995 to 1996. Read more about Fein here.

Dannehy in September 2008 was named by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the firings of U.S. Attorneys, which many critics charged were inappropriate and politically motivated.

According to the Washington Post, Dannehy obtained documents and conducted interviews of key individuals involved. She questioned former Bush White House senior aide Karl Rove in May. She also talked with former White House political director Sara Taylor and deputy director of political affairs Scott Jennings, The Post said.

In addition, the Post reported she had contacted advisers to former-Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who improperly called then-New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias, urging him to quickly push through Democratic corruption cases in New Mexico. A month after Iglesias refused the request, he was purged by the Bush administration.

There has been no public announcement about results of the investigation.

The Senate approved legislation today that would fund the Justice Department for fiscal year 2010, clearing the measure for President Barack Obama’s expected signature.

The $28 billion DOJ budget is part of the Commerce, Justice, science appropriations bill, which was packaged with five other fiscal year 2010 spending bills to make the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2010.

The $447 billion omnibus bill passed the Senate by a 57-35 vote. See the Senate roll call vote here. The House voted 221-202 to move the legislation to the Senate last Thursday.

Democrats ended a filibuster of the spending bill Saturday, garnering the 60 votes needed to cut off debate by holding the tally open for ailing Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), an observant Jew who walked from his Georgetown synagogue for the vote, The Washington Post reported.

Obama requested $27 billion for DOJ. The department’s funding is up $2 billion from fiscal year 2009, when it received $26 billion.

One of the candidates to be the next U.S. Attorney in Connecticut wouldn’t have been a U.S. citizen at birth if it weren’t for the intercession of the Justice Department years ago, the Connecticut Post reported yesterday.

William Tong (Finn Dixon & Herling)

William Tong, who is one of four candidates for the post, which is filled by presidential appointment, was born in the United States because DOJ stopped the deportation of his parents to China, according to the newspaper. His father sent a last-minute, handwritten appeal to President Richard Nixon that DOJ accepted a few years before Tong was born, the Post said.

“The Department of Justice is why I’m here today, and it’s the reason why I was born an American and why I was born in Hartford, Connecticut,” Tong, a state representative and an associate at Stamford, Conn., law firm Finn Dixon & Herling, told the Post about the fortunate developments that shaped his life.

The U.S. Attorney candidate has the backing of Connecticut police and fire unions, the newspaper said. State lawmakers also praised Tong in Post interviews about his work on gun legislation.

Sens. Christopher Dodd (D) and Joseph Lieberman (I) recommended in September that President Barack Obama nominate either Tong, Connecticut’s Acting U.S. Attorney, Nora Dannehy, lawyer David Fein or lawyer Edgardo Ramos to become the next Connecticut U.S. Attorney.

“That was an amazing act of kindness and generosity, and to have the opportunity to serve the Department of Justice and our country as a U.S. Attorney would be an equally personal honor for me,” Tong told the newspaper.

Kevin J. O'Connor (Bracewell and Giuliani)

Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell (R), who on Monday announced that she will not seek re-election next year, has mentioned a former U.S. Attorney as a possible replacement, The Hartford Courant reports. Although Rell declined to endorse a candidate, she told The Courant there are several qualified Republicans, including former U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Connor.

O’Connor in 2002 was named U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, a position in which he served until April 2008. He also briefly served simultaneously as Associate Deputy Attorney General, from January 2006 to April 2006. In addition, O’Connor in 2007 was then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales‘ chief of staff and in 2008 was confimred by the Senate as Associate Attorney General. He currently is a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani in Hartford.

O’Connor told the Courant in July he was not interested in running, but Rell’s announcement alters the political landscape. He was the GOP nominee for the First District U.S. House seat in 1998, but lost by 17 percentage points to Democrat John B. Larson. O’Connor’s name has also been mentioned as a possible challenger to Democratic Sen. Christopher J. Dodd.

Although Rell has not issued an endorsement, Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele(R) on Monday night said the governor had said she would support him for the Republican nomination, The Courant reports. When asked about Fedele’s statement, Rell told The Courant, “He is one of many people right now that have expressed an interest. He hasn’t declared yet that he’s running.”

Gov. Jodi Rell

Rell also mentioned House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero and Senate GOP leader John McKinney. “They’re all great Republicans, and they’re all very competent,” Rell told The Courant. Cafero announced his candidacy before Rell announced her plans to leave politics; McKinney has not announced whether he will run.

Among potential Democratic candidates, Connecticut Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz leads the pack, according to a poll released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University. She was favored by 26 percent of registered Democrats polled. She was followed by multimillionaire Ned Lamont, who was the Democratic nominee for Senate in 2006, with 23 percent. Lamont has not announced his candidacy for governor.

None of the other Democrats who have announced their candidacy reached double digits in the Quinnipiac poll. They include former state House Speaker Jim Amann, state Sen. Gary LeBeau, Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy and Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi.

The poll was conduced before Rell announced her intention not to seek re-election.

Nora Dannehy (doj)

Connecticut’s two senators have recommended four U.S. attorney candidates to the White House, including Nora Dannehy, the prosecutor investigating the U.S. Attorney firings.  The Hartford Courant has the story.

Edgardo Ramos (Day Pitney)

A 1986 graduate of Harvard Law School, Dannehy has been a prosecutor since 1991, specializing in white collar and public corruption cases. In April 2008, Dannehy was named acting U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut — the first woman to hold the job — following the resignation of Kevin O’Connor, who went on to become associate attorney general, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department. Then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed Dannehy in September 2008 to investigate the U.S. attorney firings.

David Fein (Wiggin & Dana)

The other finalists include David Fein, partner in the law firm Wiggin & Dana, a former associate counsel to President Bill Clinton and a former federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District; Edgardo Ramos, partner in the law firm Day Pitney and former federal prosecutor in New York’s Eastern District; and William Tong, an associate with the law firm Finn, Dixon & Herling and a state representative who serves on the legislature’s judiciary committee.

According to the Courant, Sens. Christopher Dodd (D) and Joseph Lieberman (I) sent the names to Obama in a letter to the White House Thursday.