Marc S. Murphy (Stites & Harbison)

Note to aspiring U.S. Attorney candidates: Don’t publish cartoons of your state’s senior senator wearing a cheerleader uniform.

Louisville lawyer Marc S. Murphy at Stites & Harbison found his name floated earlier this year for U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Kentucky. But Murphy also moonlights as an editorial cartoonist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, which runs three or four of his drawings weekly. His cartoons have skewered earmarks, the economy and politicians. But one important politician apparently doesn’t think Murphy is funny.

Since February 2008, Murphy has drawn several cartoons featuring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The Senate minority leader — not much known for a sense of humor — has been depicted as a pom pom-wielding cheerleader for President George W. Bush, as suffering unintended slights from Paris Hilton and in a barber’s chair seeking a Sarah Palin updo.

“I’ve been a very harsh critic of [McConnell's] positions. There’s no question about that,” Murphy said. However, “He’s a very important powerful person who has done  a lot of good things.”

But Murphy never anticipated how McConnell might react.

After President Obama’s election, Murphy said prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Western District of Kentucky encouraged him to seek the head prosecutor position. Sometime during the late winter or early spring, Murphy contacted Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) to express his interest in the job.

Murphy said he’d considered running in 2006 for the seat eventually captured by Yarmuth. But Yarmuth had talked him out of it. After President Obama’s election, Yarmuth considered recommending Murphy for the Louisville-based U.S. Attorney post, according to Murphy and another Kentucky lawyer with knowledge of the process.

While U.S. senators traditionally make recommendations to the president for their states’ U.S. Attorney posts, both senators from Kentucky — McConnell and Jim Bunning — are Republicans. As a result, the Democrats in the delegation,Yarmuth and Rep. Ben Chandler, were in charge of the recommendations.

However, when Yarmuth consulted McConnell earlier this year about his possible recommendations, he got a surprise, Murphy said. According to Murphy, who said he heard the story from Yarmuth, McConnell told the congressman: “You’re not going to recommend that guy who draws those cartoons of me, are you?”

Yarmuth laughed, according to Murphy. McConnell didn’t laugh back. Yarmuth asked McConnel if he was serious.  Apparently so.

Oops!

Murphy said he hasn’t spoken to Yarmuth since then. Yarmuth spokesman Trey Pollard said the congressman interviewed a number of candidates and selected the most qualified.

Murphy says he is disappointed but not discouraged. “I’m a very big supporter of President Obama,” adding he “would have been very proud to be part of the Obama administration.” He emphasized that he “didn’t feel cheated” because he “never thought [he] was a top candidate.”

But does Murphy regret drawing his McConnell cartoons?

“My night job got in the way of my public service,” he conceded. However, Murphy said there would have been an upside for McConnell if he’d gotten the job.

“If I became the U.S. Attorney I wouldn’t be able to do cartoons about him anymore.”

David Hale (Reed Weitkamp Schell & Vice PLLC)

The field appears to be narrowing for candidates for U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

David Hale of Reed Weitkamp Schell & Vice PLLC and Patrick Bouldin, an attorney in the Office of the Federal Defender for the Western District of Kentucky, are considered to be finalists, according to attorneys familiar with the recommendation process.

Hale (Vanderbilt University, University of Kentucky College of Law) has worked at Reed Weitkamp since 1999.  Before joining RWSV, Hale was a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Kentucky. Bouldin attended the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville School of Law.

The people familiar with the process said several others were also under consideration for the post at one time. They include:

• Benham Sims, a former judge in Jefferson, Ky., District Court
• Fred Cowan, a former state attorney general, a former member of the state House and currently a circuit court judge
• Tom McDonald, a retired judge from the Jefferson Circuit Court
• Marc S. Murphy, an attorney in Louisville

While U.S. senators traditionally make recommendations to the president for their states’ U.S. Attorney posts, both senators from Kentucky — Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning — are Republicans. As a result, the two lone Democrats in the delegation, Reps. Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth, are left to do the nominating. Spokespeople for Chandler and Yarmuth did not return phone calls seeking comment.

“I don’t know that they agree between themselves who should do the recommending,” Scott C. Cox, a Republican lawyer in Kentucky who served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney  from 1987 to 1994, said in an interview.