Richard Shelby (Getty Images)

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama has withdrawn most of his “holds” on presidential nominees, including President Obama’s picks for key Justice Department posts.

Shelby’s office announced late last night that the senator would drop his “blanket hold” on more than 70 nominees pending on the Senate Executive Calendar. A hold is when a senator — often anonymously — lets it be known he would oppose a unanimous consent request to bring a particular bill or nomination to the Senate floor. Without unanimous consent, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would have to make a debatable motion to bring the matter to the floor, thus raising the possibility of a filibuster. Senate leaders usually do not even begin that process, recognizing it would be very time-consuming.

The DOJ nominees who were caught up in Shelby’s hold were:

• Mary L. Smith, to be Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division. She was reported out of committee last Thursday.

• Christopher Schroeder, to be Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy. He also was reported out of committee on Thursday.

• John Laub, to be director of the National Institute of Justice. He was reported out of committee on Dec. 3.

• Susan Carbon, to be director of the Office on Violence Against Women. She was reported out of committee on Dec. 3.

• Richard Hartunian, to be U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York. He was reported out of committee on Jan. 28.

• Andre Birotte Jr., to be U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. He was reported out of committee on Jan. 28.

• Ron Machen, to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He was reported out of committee on Jan. 28.

The Alabama senator had held up the more than 70 nominees since Thursday over concerns he has about a tanker contract that could bring 1,500 jobs to Mobile, Ala., and over funds he is requesting to build an FBI counterterrorism center in his state. Northrop Grumman is vying to win the tanker contract, and if successful, would assemble the planes in Mobile.

A spokesman for Shelby said the Republican had “accomplished” his goal by employing the “blanket hold,” according to Politico.

“The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House’s attention on two issues that are critical to our national security – the Air Force’s aerial refueling tanker acquisition and the FBI’s Terrorist Device Analytical Center (TEDAC). With that accomplished, Sen. Shelby has decided to release his holds on all but a few nominees directly related to the Air Force tanker acquisition until the new Request for Proposal is issued,”  Shelby aide Jonathan Graffeo said in a statement, according to Politico.

Shelby still has holds on the nominations of Terry Yonkers, assistant secretary of the Air Force; Frank Kendall, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics; and Erin Conaton, undersecretary of the Air Force, Politico said.

Democrats and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs had sharply criticized Shelby for the rare move to hold up all of Obama’s nominees who were waiting for votes in the full Senate. Last week, Gibbs said there likely wouldn’t be a “greater example of silliness throughout the entire year of 2010.”

Mary Smith has been appointed to the Justice Department’s Civil Division pending the outcome of her long-stalled nomination to lead the Tax Division, a Justice official said.

Mary L. Smith (Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman)

She is expected to begin work on Wednesday as Senior Counsel to Assistant Attorney General Tony West, the official said.

Her nomination has been controversial. Republican senators have complained of Smith’s lack of tax law experience, but Democrats have defended her, saying her past work as an in-house counsel at Tyco International and as a DOJ trial attorney qualifies her for the post.

Smith was a trial attorney in the Civil Division in the 1990s, before leaving to work on President Bill Clinton’s reelection campaign. She later worked in Clinton’s White House counsel’s office. After she left government, Smith was senior litigation counsel for Tyco during a class action against the company that ended in $3 billion settlement.

Most recently, she was a partner at the Chicago law firm Schoeman, Updike & Kaufman.

In the front office, Smith will be advising West on division organization and coordinating with other offices, among other duties, the official said. She was appointed to the Civil Division, rather than the Tax Division, because nominees are barred from handling matters in the office to which they are nominated.

Smith may be in the Civil Division for awhile. Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama has placed a blanket hold on all nominations pending on the Senate Executive Calendar, over concerns he has about a tanker contract that could bring 1,500 jobs to Mobile, Ala., and over funds he is requesting to build an FBI counterterrorism center in his state.

The Senate panel approved Smith on a party line vote last June, but in the face of Republican opposition, her nomination never reached the Senate floor. The nomination was returned at the end of the session in December. President Barack Obama renominated her this year, and she again moved through committee on a party line vote last Thursday.

Richard Shelby (Getty Images)

Seven Justice Department nominees that have been reported out the Senate Judiciary Committee might not receive votes on the Senate floor anytime soon thanks to Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.

Last night Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that Shelby had placed a “blanket hold” on all nominations pending on the Senate Executive Calendar, including two Assistant Attorneys General nominees, two would-be directors of DOJ offices and three prospective U.S. Attorneys.

Those nominees are:

• Mary L. Smith, Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division. She was reported out of committee yesterday.

• Christopher Schroeder, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy. He also was reported out of committee yesterday.

• John Laub, Director of the National Institute of Justice. He was reported out of committee on Dec. 3.

• Susan Carbon, Director of the Office on Violence Against Women. She was reported out of committee on Dec. 3.

• Richard Hartunian, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York. He was reported out of committee on Jan. 28.

• Andre Birotte Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. He was reported out of committee on Jan. 28.

• Ron Machen, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He was reported out of committee on Jan. 28.

But the Republican’s beef isn’t with the nominees.

The Alabama senator is holding up the nominees over concerns he has about a tanker contract that could bring 1,500 jobs to Mobile, Ala., and over funds he is requesting to build an FBI counterterrorism center in his state, according to The Caucus blog on The New York Times Web site. Northrop Grumman is vying to win the tanker contract, and if successful, would assemble the plans in Mobile.

“Senator Shelby has placed holds on several pending nominees due to unaddressed national security concerns,” Shelby spokesperson Jonathan Graffeo said in a statement, according to The Caucus. “Among his concerns is that nearly 10 years after the U.S. Air Force announced plans to replace the aging tanker fleet, we still do not have a transparent and fair acquisition process to move forward. The Department of Defense must recognize that the draft Request for Proposal needs to be significantly and substantively changed.”

He added: “Senator Shelby is also deeply concerned that the administration will not release the funds already appropriated to the FBI to build the Terrorist Explosives Devices Analytical Center. This decision impedes the U.S. military, the intelligence community, and federal law enforcement personnel in their missions to exploit and analyze intelligence information critical to fighting terrorism and ensuring American security worldwide.”

Shelby would be willing to speak with the Obama administration about his concerns at any time, according to the spokesman.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs condemned Shelby for the rare decision to hold up all of Obama’s nominees who are waiting for votes in the full Senate.

“I guess if you needed one example of what’s wrong with this town, it might be that one senator can hold up 70 qualified individuals to make government work better because he didn’t get his earmarks,” Gibbs told reporters today, according to the blog. “If that’s not the poster child for how this town needs to change the way it works, I fear there won’t be a greater example of silliness throughout the entire year of 2010.”

The Democratic National Committee also posted a video on YouTube yesterday that alleges Shelby’s holds are threatening national security.

The senator’s holds don’t make it impossible for the Senate to consider nominees. Under normal circumstances, Senate leaders honor an individual senator’s hold. But if Majority Leader Reid wants to bring a nomination to the Senate floor, he could file a cloture petition. Cutting off debate on a nomination is a time-consuming process for the Senate and would be difficult for the Democratic majority with the addition of Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) to the Senate. Brown became the 41st member of the Republican Senate caucus yesterday, ending the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority.

Reid said on the Senate floor yesterday that the president might have to start considering recess appointments, which wouldn’t require confirmation.

“The president will look at all his options,” Gibbs said, according to The Caucus.

The White House is having trouble finding a replacement for controversial U.S. Attorney Leura Canary in Alabama’s Middle District, having considered and discarded three candidates over the last year, according to Alabama Democrats.

Leura Canary (gov)

Both Republicans and Democrats have objected to different candidates, and the White House has been unwilling to cross the state’s powerful GOP senators, according to a Democrat who has spoken to administration officials about the matter. The result has been the continued service of Canary, a bête noire of Alabama Democrats for her prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D), while the administration now considers a fourth candidate.

Over the summer, the White House eliminated white-collar defense lawyer Joe Van Heest of Montgomery, even though he’d already been fully vetted, the Alabama Democrats said.

Joe Van Heest (via Facebook)

Van Heest met objections from Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee. Shelby had also helped thwart the original candidate for the job, Mobile-based lawyer Michel Nicrosi, the Democrats said. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also opposed Nicrosi.

Then, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Birmingham-based Northern District briefly emerged as a front-runner, only to be shot down by Alabama Democrats who said her past work on politically controversial prosecutions disqualified her.

Last month, Main Justice provided an accounting of U.S. Attorney nominations. The figures — President Barack Obama has nominated 42 U.S. Attorneys, and 31 have been confirmed — painted a picture of a process beset by political interference and a White House counsel’s office in flux. (The latter problem may be solved, with the arrival of White House counsel Bob Bauer, but only time will tell.)

Alabama’s Middle District provides an interesting case study: Republican and Democratic opposition, combined with a hands-off White House, has so gummed up the process, there have been four U.S. Attorney front-runners since the summer – but zero nominations.

Shelby’s objections to Van Heest, as we reported in July, appeared to be related to his efforts to promote the daughter of a political supporter for the job. Shelby pushed Anna Clark Morris for the prosecutor post,  Alabama officials and lawyers told Main Justice over the summer. Morris, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District, is the daughter of influential trial lawyer and Shelby supporter Larry Morris. Neither Shelby’s office nor Van Heest returned phone calls seeking comment.

Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) (Getty Images)

Both Nicrosi and Van Heest enjoyed the support of  Rep. Artur Davis, the state’s senior congressional Democrat, and they both reached the interview-at-the-Justice-Department stage of the process before the White House eliminated them. Nicrosi was the first choice of a selection committee formed Davis; Van Heest was the second. Click here and here for a more background on their candidacies.

After Van Heest, according to the Democrat with knowledge of the selection process, several individuals were approached about the job, including two state circuit judges, a former federal magistrate judge, and a former president of the Alabama state bar. All declined to throw in their hats — though it’s not clear why. (An indictment of the current process, perhaps?)

At one point, there was an effort to build some support around Montgomery-based lawyer Ed Parish Jr., the knowledgeable Democrat said. But Davis and others raised objections about Parish’s lack of criminal experience.

In the fall, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamarra Matthews Johnson, 35, of Alabama’s Northern District, emerged as the new front-runner. It’s not clear who recommended her for the post. The knowledgeable Democrat said she applied directly to the White House. Johnson declined to comment.

In any event Johnson, a former clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, wasn’t expected encounter opposition from Sessions and Shelby, the knowledgeable Democrat said.

But she could not overcome her work on corruption cases against Democrats, including the prosecution of Siegelman for alleged bid-rigging. The case, which was overseen by Birmingham-based U.S. Attorney Alice Martin, another villian of the Left, was eventually thrown out. (Siegelman was later indicted and convicted in the Montgomery-based Middle District, on Canary’s turf.)

Democrats have long-maintained the Siegelman cases were politically motivated.

Johnson also worked on the Justice Department’s case against Richard Scrushy, the former chief executive of HealthSouth, who was acquitted in 2005 of masterminding a $2.7 billion accounting fraud. But in 2006, Scrushy was convicted in the Middle District of paying $500,000 to Siegelman in return for a seat on the state hospital regulatory board.

Amid a groundswell of Democratic opposition – Johnson was referred to as a “rabid, right-wing Republican” in one anyonmous quote that gained purchase in the blogosphere, though she and her husband are Democratic donors  –  Davis approached the White House. The congressman warned that her nomination would generate a backlash, the knowledgeable Democrat said.

The White House, which thus far has been loath to mix it up with Republicans over U.S. Attorney nominations, tread at least as carefully with Democrats, and Johnson’s candidacy dissolved.

The new front-runner, the official said, is George Beck Jr., 68, a white-collar defense lawyer at Capell & Howard and former state prosecutor. Davis recently passed his named to the White House, the official said, but it appears his candidacy will be anything but tidy.

Even if he satisfies the state’s Republican senators, he’ll have to assuage Democrats. Like Johnson, he also was involved in the Siegelman case as a lawyer for government witness Nick Bailey, an ex-aide to the governor who was sentenced to 18 months in prison on bribery-related charges. Bailey, one of the government’s star witnesses, testified in three trials and submitted to more than 40 interviews with federal investigators.

Beck, others noted, also defended Guy Hunt, the first Republican governor of Alabama since Reconstruction, who was convicted of illegaly diverting and spending money raised for his 1987 inauguration.

For the first time in this administration, Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorneys nominated by President Barack Obama outnumber Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorneys nominated by former President George W. Bush.

As of the end of November, more than 10 months into Obama’s presidency, the score was 24 Obama U.S. Attorneys to 21 Bush U.S. Attorneys, according to a review of Justice Department and congressional records. And of the 48 acting and interim U.S. Attorneys, just seven were appointed during the Bush administration.

Stephanie Villafuerte (gov)

The figures represent a watershed for the Obama administration, which has made halting progress filling the nation’s 93 U.S. Attorneys positions amid political resistance and a crowded legislative agenda.

On Monday, the U.S. Attorney nominee for Colorado, Stephanie Villafuerte, pulled her name from consideration, offering a public view of one of several nomination battles unfolding in districts across the country. Villafuerte, the first Obama U.S. Attorney nominee to withdraw, faced questions from Republicans over whether she accessed a restricted federal database for political purposes.

Meanwhile, in Mississippi’s Northern District, Oxford-based criminal defense lawyer Christi McCoy’s candidacy has foundered. People in Mississippi legal circles said Republicans raised questions about her affiliation with a private investigator under investigation for allegedly padding his bills and submitting false claims. (McCoy, like many other defense lawyers in Mississippi, used the P.I. in her practice.)

McCoy was recommended for the U.S. Attorney post by Mississippi Reps. Bennie Thompson and Travis Childers, both Democrats.

Leura Canary (gov)

And in Alabama, Montgomery criminal defense lawyer Joe Van Heest appears to be out of the running for Middle District U.S. Attorney after objections from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), one person familiar with the situation said. Van Heest, who was recommended by Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), had been fully vetted by the White House months ago. But the administration never went forward with a nomination.

As a result, a controversial Bush-holder U.S. Attorney, Leura Canary, remains in charge of the Montgomery-based office. Democrats have criticized Canary for prosecuting former Gov. Don Siegelman (D) on public corruption charges. The Justice Department opposes Siegelman’s Supreme Court appeal of his 2006 conviction.

The White House has shown little appetite for these and other feuds, preferring to reservoir political capital for legislative goals such as health-care reform.

Attorney General Eric Holder has said the Obama administration is treading cautiously in nominating U.S. Attorneys, in part because of lingering sensitivities to politicization in the Justice Department. In an October interview with National Public Radio, Holder said he hoped the offices would be filled by the first part of 2010, but that appears unlikely, with fewer than one-third of the U.S. Attorneys confirmed heading into the New Year.

Eric Holder (Photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice)

One administration official said Holder is frustrated with the pace of the nominations, which thus far has been set by the White House. And several Justice officials are now privately questioning the wisdom of leaving Bush-appointed U.S. Attorneys in place until their successors are confirmed, a tack Obama took to preserve continuity and avoid political pitfalls after the scandal over prosecutor firings.

More than twice as many Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorneys were in place by this time in the first year of the previous two administrations. In the Bush administration, the Senate had confirmed 58 U.S. Attorneys by the end of November 2001, congressional records show. President Bill Clinton, by comparison, had moved 57 U.S. Attorneys through the confirmation process by the end of November 1993.

Nominations, too, have been slow in coming, reinforcing the notion that the top rather than the bottom of the process is knotted. Obama has sent 34 U.S. Attorney nominations to the Senate to date. Bush had nominated more than 60 U.S. Attorneys and Clinton more than 70 U.S. Attorneys by this time in their first terms.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the figures, referring a reporter to Holder’s previous statements on U.S. Attorney nominations.

To read our previous most recent accounting of U.S. Attorney nominees, click here. And to view our interactive U.S. Attorney chart, click here.

Below are lists of Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorneys.

Nominated by Obama:

• Timothy Heaphy (Western District of Virginia)
• Karen Loeffler (District of Alaska)
• Brendan Johnson (District of South Dakota)
• Paul Fishman (District of New Jersey)
• Kenyen Brown (Southern District of Alabama)
• Stephanie Rose (Northern District of Iowa)
• Nick Klinefeldt (Southern District of Iowa)
• Benjamin Wagner (Eastern District of California)
• Ed Tarver (Southern District of Georgia)
• Carmen Ortiz (District of Massachusetts)
• Joyce Vance (Northern District of Alabama)
• B. Todd Jones (District of Minnesota)
• John Kacavas (District of New Hampshire)
• Preet Bharara (Southern District of New York)
• Tristram Coffin (District of Vermont)
• Dennis Burke (District of Arizona)
• Daniel Bogden (District of Nevada)
• Steve Dettelbach (Northern District of Ohio)
• Carter Stewart (Southern District of Ohio)
• Peter Neronha (District of Rhode Island)
• Neil MacBride (Eastern District of Virginia)
• Florence Nakakuni (District of Hawaii)
• Deborah Gilg (District of Nebraska)
• Jenny Durkan (Western District of Washington)

Nominated by Bush:

• Leura Canary (Middle District of Alabama)
• Joseph Russoniello (Northern District of California)
• A. Brian Albritton (Middle District of Florida)
• Leonardo Rapadas (Guam & Northern Mariana Islands)
• Thomas Moss (District of Idaho)
• Patrick Fitzgerald (Northern District of Illinois)
• Jim Letten (Eastern District of Louisiana)
• David Dugas (Middle District of Louisiana)
• Donald Washington (Western District of Louisiana)
• Rod Rosenstein (District of Maryland)
• Jim Greenlee (Northern District of Mississippi)
• William Mercer (District of Montana)
• George E.B. Holding (Eastern District of North Carolina)
• Anna Mills S. Wagner (Middle District of North Carolina)
• Sheldon Sperling (District of Oklahoma)
• William Walter Wilkins III (District of South Carolina)
• James Dedrick (Eastern District of Tennessee)
• Edward Meachan Yardbrough (Middle District of Tennessee)
• Brett Tolman (District of Utah)
• James McDevit (Eastern District of Washington)
• Kelly Rankin (District of Wyoming)

And here’s a list of Obama nominees who have not been confirmed:

• Christopher Crofts (District of Wyoming)
• Thomas Walker (Eastern District of North Carolina)
• James Santelle (Eastern District of Wisconsin)
• Barbara McQuade (Eastern District of Michigan)
• Mary Elizabeth Phillips (Western District of Missouri)
• Sanford Coats (Western District of Oklahoma)
• Michael Cotter (District of Montana)
• Richard Callahan (Eastern District of Missouri)
• Michael Moore (Middle District of Georgia)

Capitol Hill staffer Kenyen Brown was nominated Thursday to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. Read the White House news release here. 

Kenyen Brown (Main Justice file photo)

According to Sean Reilly at the Mobile Press-Register, Brown would be the first African-American to hold a top federal prosecuting position in Alabama. 

Main Justice broke the story of the surprise choice for the Mobile-based district two months ago. Brown, a former AUSA in the district, has worked on Capitol Hill as a staffer on the Senate and House ethics committees since 2000. He didn’t lobby for the job and wasn’t one of the two candidates formally recommended to the White House by Rep. Artur Davis, the senior Alabama Democrat in the House.

Artur Davis (gov)

News that Brown was vetted for the job raised eyebrows in Alabama’s gossipy legal community, in part because one of his former mentors is a close friend of arch-conservative Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Read our June 6 report here. 

Since then, we learned more about the events that led to Brown’s unexpected selection. And we can confidently lay to rest the rumor that Sessions secretly had a hand in engineering Brown’s selection.

What rumor? Well, we originally didn’t report it because we couldn’t find any evidence for it. But we can’t debunk something you haven’t heard, so here goes:

When Brown was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District in the 1990s, he was befriended by a veteran prosecutor named Richard Moore, according to people in Alabama who know both men. Moore had been hired by Sessions, who served as U.S. Attorney for the district from 1981 to 1993. Sessions later sponsored Moore for the Inspector General post at the Tennessee Valley Authority and publicly praised him as a “good friend” during his 2003 Senate confirmation hearing. Read our previous report about Moore and Sessions here. 

The rumor in Alabama was that Sessions put Brown’s name forward with some kind of wink and nod that he’d hire Moore, his old mentor, as his deputy — and thus allow Sessions to wield influence indirectly over his old turf.

But this just didn’t check out.

First, Sessions told Main Justice’s Andrew Ramonas in June that while he knows Brown, he didn’t recommend him for the job. Then, a Democratic official with knowledge of the selection process said Brown emerged as a consensus candidate because Rep. Artur Davis’s first choice for the job, Southern District of Alabama Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Davis (no relation), didn’t fare well in her Washington interview. For a description of some of the hurdles Vicki Davis appeared to face, click here for our previous report and scroll down.

It turns out that Rep. Davis met Brown last year, after he saw Brown’s name in the congressional newspaper Roll Call’s annual feature on the 50 most powerful staffers in Congress. Reading that Brown was from Alabama, the congressman asked to meet Brown — as any good politician would do.

Later, Vicki Davis ran into trouble. But Rep. Davis’s announced second choice for the Mobile job, former U.S. magistrate judge Patrick Sims, was never seriously considered, because White House wanted at least one African-American heading up one of the three prosecuting districts in a Deep South state with a history of racial conflict. Vicki Davis is African-American. Sims is white.

The nominee for Alabama’s Northern District, Joyce Vance, is also white. And so is the intended nominee for Alabama’s Middle District, Joe Van Heest, who’s been held up because of objections from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). Read our previous report about Van Heest’s delay here. 

Davis then recommended the White House consider Brown. And the rest is, as they say, history.

The most surprising name in the White House announcement Friday of new U.S. Attorney nominees was Daniel Bogden. One of six prosecutors fired by the Bush White House in 2006, Bogden was recommended for his old job by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

Harry Reid (gov)

It might sound inspiring: prosecutor wronged by the Bushies made right by the Obama team. But it’s a little more complicated. Reid faces an uphill battle for re-election next year. And in a Western state like Nevada, being leader of the Senate Democrats is more of a liability than advantage. Think: Tom Daschle.

So, by asking the White House to appoint Bogden, Reid is able to score points with Republicans in Nevada, portray himself as a centrist, and tell liberals he was doing it to right a wrong of the Bush era. The only problem, as we have previously reported here and here: line prosecutors in Nevada don’t much like Bodgen, whose most prominent local case was known as “G-Sting” because it involved bribery allegations at a strip club.

Daniel Bogden (Getty Images)

Anonymous prosecutors used words like “demoralizing” and “disheartening” and “It’s not what Obama is about” in a June story in the Las Vegas Sun.

The New York Times has a story today on the Bodgen controversy  here. There have been complaints in the past about a lack of diversity in the office, and the Times quotes F. Travis Buchanan, president of the Las Vegas chapter of the National Bar Association, a professional group for African-American lawyers, as saying: 

“We just don’t understand, why him?”…. “Who else was considered? If no one else was considered, why wasn’t anyone else considered?”

The Times reported that Buchanan’s group was drafting a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to express “reservations” about the intended nomination. The Times said it could not reach Bogden for comment Friday.

Undoubtedly the White House took into account that Nevada’s Republican senator, John Ensign, supports Bodgen. The White House has been very solicitous of GOP senators’ wishes in the U.S. Attorney process — apparently regardless of whether they’re involved in a sex scandal – and has even delayed a fully vetted candidate for the Middle District of Alabama because Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) is objecting.

Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison are moving serenely forward with their own U.S. Attorney selection process, ignoring the red-faced Texas House Democrats who’ve been screaming that they’re in charge of the recommendations.

As they did during the Bush administration, Hutchison and Cornyn assembled a screening committee to select finalists for U.S. Attorney, marshal and judicial vacancies. The fact that a Democrat now sits in the White House didn’t concern them. “The fact is, it’s the Senate’s prerogative who will go forward,” Cornyn told me in a hallway interview in the Capitol today.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (gov)

This attitude has caused Texas Democrats, led by Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin, to go ballistic. In March, the Democrats convened an anguished meeting with White House counsel Greg Craig, who’s been trying to mediate the dispute, though not very successfully. Click here and here to read our previous coverage of the dispute. The only concession the GOP senators offered was to add a few Democrats to their screening committee and identify who’s on the panel. In years past, the process had been shrouded in secrecy and run entirely by Republicans.

On Thursday, the screening committee’s recommended finalists for the U.S. Attorney jobs in the Eastern and Northern Districts of Texas are slated to meet with the Texas senators in Washington, Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said. He declined to name the finalists. In the Capitol today, I asked Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whether his committee was proceeding with approval of Doggett and the Texas Democrats.

“I don’t care if he agrees or not,” Cornyn said, referring to Doggett. “No applicant will go foward who does not go through the screening committee, because I’m not going to return a blue slip on them.” A blue slip is a Senate tradition whereby home-state senators register their approval or disapproval of judicial and and other law-enforcement nominees. To not return a blue slip, or to return a blue slip with a negative mark on it, is a way of signalling to the White House that the senator will object.

President George W. Bush generally ignored blue slips from Democrats. But the Obama White House has been much more solicitous of Republican senators in the nominating process. For example, they’ve let objections from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) stall a U.S. Attorney candidate for the Middle District of Alabama who’s already been vetted and is ready to go. Read our report of the Shelby story here.

We called Doggett’s office for comment Tuesday. We’ll let you know when we hear back.

President Obama’s intended nominee for the Montgomery-based Middle District of Alabama is all vetted and ready to go. But you didn’t see white collar criminal defense lawyer Joe Van Heest on the list of new nominees released by the White House Friday.

The reason: Objections from Republican Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), two Democrats close to the nominating process recently told me. 

Leura Canary (gov)

As a result, controversial U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, whose office prosecuted former Gov. Don Siegelman (D) on political corruption charges, will likely cling to office a bit longer while the Shelby spat gets sorted out.

Shelby’s office didn’t return phone calls seeking comment. A White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, declined to comment. Van Heest, who practices in Montgomery, did not respond to a request for comment.

As far as we can tell, Shelby’s goal isn’t to prolong the tenure of Canary, who hasn’t taken the hint and resigned yet. Canary, of course, is accused of  helping send the popular Siegelman to prison on bogus charges so he couldn’t run for office again. Canary is married to GOP political operative Bill Canary, who was reportedly close to Karl Rove.

Rather, Shelby’s objections appear to be related to his campaign to promote the daughter of a political supporter for the job, Alabama Democrats say.

Shelby has backed Anna Clark Morris for the position, Alabama officials and lawyers have told me. Morris is an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District office and the daughter of influential trial lawyer Larry Morris, the Shelby supporter.

Larry Morris (Morris, Haynes & Hornsby)

Morris, of Morris, Haynes & Hornsby in Birmingham, also has built good relations with both Democrats and Republicans. And Shelby, of course, is himself is a former Democrat and a trial lawyer. 

A local Democratic patronage committee had recommended Anna Clark Morris for the job, but according to a high-ranking Democratic official with knowledge of the process, she hasn’t been vetted by the White House and won’t be nominated.

Another name floated for the position is Montgomery Presiding Circuit Court Judge Charles Price. Price is African American and would add diversity (Van Heest is white). But Price isn’t a contender, Democrats close to the process tell me, despite Price’s recent quotes in this piece in the Montgomery Independent suggesting he’s interested. 

Van Heest was the second choice for the Middle District put forward by Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who as the state’s senior congressional Democrat has been making recommendations to the White House. Davis’s first choice for the job was former federal prosecutor Michel Nicrosi, now in the corporate compliance and white collar defense section of Jones Walker in Mobile. But both Shelby and Alabama’s other Republican senator, Jeff Sessions, objected to Nicrosi, and the White House eliminated her from contention weeks ago. Read our previous report on Nicrosi here.

The odd thing about the Van Heest nomination is how defential the White House is apparently being to Shelby. We know the White House doesn’t want any controversy (ie: no senatorial “blue slips” filed against their nominees.) But in Van Heest, the administration has a guy who’s ready to go – and who would replace one of the bête noires of the Left. The George W. Bush White House would have just rolled any Democrats who tried to object to their nominees – and they didn’t have a 60-vote supermajority in 2001.  

Stay tuned.

Former federal prosecutor and tax-fraud expert Michel Nicrosi is out of the running for the U.S. Attorney position in the Middle District of Alabama, in part because she was opposed by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), say people with knowledge of the situation.

Michel Nicrosi (courtesy Trinity Episcopal Church)

The leading candidate now appears to be Joseph P. Van Heest, a criminal defense attorney in Montgomery.

Nicrosi, a lawyer now in private practice in Mobile who successfully defended a top aide to former Gov. Don Siegelman (D) against racketeering charges, was the first choice of a selection committee formed by Rep. Artur Davis, the state’s senior congressional Democrat. Van Heest was Davis’s second choice for the job. Read Davis’s January news release about his recommendations here.

Davis is in charge of making judicial and U.S. Attorney recommendations to the White House because Alabama’s two senators – Sessions and Richard Shelby — are both Republicans.  What’s interesting is how much political weight in this process the White House apparently is giving the GOP senators over Davis, an African-American who was an early supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in heavily Republican Alabama.

The conservative Sessions was U.S. Attorney in the Southern District from 1981 to 1993 and is said to remain keenly interested in matters down in Mobile. And now, of course, he wields particular influence with the White House because as the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he has the power to rough up or even block President Obama’s judicial selections. Moreover, it’s not a time when the White House wants to cross Sessions, with Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings set to begin July 13.

And, unfortunately for Nicrosi, there is some bad blood between her and a good friend and protege of Sessions named Richard Moore, say people familiar with the Southern District.

Richard Moore (TVA)

In the 1990s, Clinton-appointed U.S. Attorney Don Foster in the Southern District of Alabama chose Nicrosi over Moore to head the office’s criminal division. Moore was a prosecutor in the office who’d been hired by Sessions. Then as criminal division chief, Nicrosi required prosecutors to create standard plea bargain language and write prosecution memos – professional practices that the office had neglected, say people familiar with the Southern District. The extra work load didn’t sit well with some veterans in the office, the people say.

A spokesman for Sessions, Stephen Miller, said he wasn’t able at this time to gather enough information to comment about Nicrosi or what role Sessions is playing in the U.S. Attorney selection process in Alabama. The senator and his staff have been consumed by preparations for the Sotomayor hearing, Miller said. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Melissa Schwartz, said the administration’s policy is not to comment on internal deliberations regarding U.S. Attorney selections. A spokesman for Rep. Davis also declined to comment. 

As for Moore, he went on in 2003 to be named Inspector General of the Tennessee Valley Authority, thanks to a recommendation from Sessions. In a sign of the high esteem Sessions holds for Moore, the senator appeared in person at Moore’s 2003 confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

In testimony that can be read here, Sessions called Moore his “good friend” and said:

“Richard Moore, I think, is one of America’s finest public servants. … He is a churchman, and a man of integrity and ability. … He has a wonderful wife, Elizabeth Ann. I am proud of them… I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me the opportunity to say something about my good friend, Richard Moore. He is the kind of person that you would be proud to have in your home for supper with your family and the kind of person all of us are proud to see in public service.

Moore added in his own statement to the committee: “I would also like to thank Senator Sessions for his kind remarks this morning and for his sponsoring my nomination for this position.”

But opposition from the Sessions camp wasn’t the only issue that doomed Nicrosi for the Middle District job, say people familiar with the situation. The hard-charging ex-prosecutor also rubbed some luminaries in Alabama’s close-knit legal community the wrong way by speaking out forcefully against a Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney embroiled in a sex scandal. The U.S. Attorney, David York, resigned his leadership of Alabama’s Southern District in 2005 amid allegations of an improper relationship with an assistant U.S. Attorney under his supervision.

There’s more. A state Democratic patronage committee had recommended the daughter of a major Democratic donor who is close to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala) for the job. Shelby, a former Democrat and trial lawyer, is said to be close to Larry Morris, father of Anna Clark Morris, an assistant U.S. Attorney in Montgomery. A spokesman for Shelby didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.

Upshot: Nicrosi appears to have been done in by some combination of Shelby promoting his friend’s daughter for the job, the Sessions camp opposing Nicrosi, and lingering bad feelings in the Alabama judicial community about Nicrosi’s outspokenness against ex-U.S. Attorney York’s improper relationship with the AUSA.

An earlier version of this post was published on June 10.