John Cornyn (gov)

With the White House unwilling to consider his pick for Dallas U.S. Attorney, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Thursday eased up in his fight to get Sarah Saldana nominated, The Dallas Morning News reported. Although he still prefers the North Texas Assistant U.S. Attorney for the job, Cornyn said during a conference call with reporters that he is willing to consider other candidates, The Morning News reported.

Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) have been squaring off with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) over whether Republicans or Democrats will be in charge of recommending U.S. Attorney candidates to the White House. Cornyn has threatened to block any nominee who was not approved by a screening committee set up by the Republican senators. Doggett has insisted that Texas Democrats will have the final word.

During the Thursday call, Cornyn’s tone seemed to soften. “The ball is really in the White House’s court,” the senator said. He said he would characterize his discussions with the White House as “a negotiation,” The Morning News reported.

Doggett said on Thursday said in a statement: ”Since there are a number of well-qualified individuals for U.S. attorney, I have no doubt this will be resolved from our delegation’s recommendations.”

According to Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D), Texas Democrats are unwilling to recommend Saldana, The Morning News reported. While they have yet to publicly announce their choices for the Dallas-based job,  Democrats have recommended Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore and Dallas civil lawyer Roger Williams to President Obama, The Morning News has reported.

Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said the senator is waiting for an answer from the White House as to why Saldana is not being considered, The Morning News reported. “She’s an arguably liberal Democrat who’s been endorsed by [abortion rights group] NARAL and a lot of liberal organizations who Senator Cornyn does not have anything in common with,” McLaughlin said, adding, “It’s not like it’s Antonin Scalia,” he added, referring to the conservative Supreme Court justice.

Just how far did Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana make it with the Democrats in Texas?

The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reported last week that Saldana never made it on the Lone Star’s House Democrats’ list. This item contradicted information reported in the Dallas Morning News, which reported days earlier that Saldana was on the Democrats’ short list “for much of the year,” but taken off once Sen. Kay Baily Hutchison (R-Texas) backed her.

The Star-Telegram goes further, claiming Saldana didn’t even interview with the state’s House Democrats, quoting Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D), as saying Saldana’s name “never came up in our group.”

In fact, according to the Star-Telegram, Saldana had been “extremely pushy” with Johnson. The Assistant U.S. Attorney recently participated in the prosecution team that won conviction of  former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill in what the Morning News called the largest corruption scandal in Dallas’ history.

Recently, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) told Main Justice that no federal attorney would be confirmed “without the Texas Democratic delegation’s support.” But the Republican senators, even though they aren’t from President Obama’s party, have not been willing to relinquish their role in the process.

Doggett has said Cornyn and Hutchison’s Republican screening committee has been “not very helpful” in the process. Democrats have drawn up their own list of candidates, which recommends Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore and Dallas civil lawyer Roger Williams for the Northern District spot.

Calls to Doggett and Cornyn’s offices were not returned.

John Cornyn (gov)

Here’s a man-bites-dog story: John Cornyn has taken his fight to get a Democrat confirmed as North Texas U.S. Attorney to the Federalist Society.

In a speech Friday to members of the conservative legal organization’s Dallas chapter, Cornyn touted his pick for the job, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana. “It would set a bad precedent if they [the administration] bowed to political pressure” and didn’t nominate her, Cornyn said, according to the Dallas Morning News.

That “political pressure” would be from Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who is furious that Cornyn and Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) have refused to stand aside and let Texas Democrats recommend the candidates. But senators have the power to block nominees, so the White House has been deferential to their views — even when they are Republicans.

Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has vowed to block any nominee who didn’t meet his approval. He finessed the matter by picking Saldana, a Democrat, for the Dallas-based job. It was a canny move. The Obama administration doesn’t want to be accused, as President George W. Bush was, of politicizing the U.S. Attorney selections, and has gone out of its way to find consensus candidates. Now Cornyn gets to call himself bipartisan while also appearing to be in charge of the selection process. All this undoubtedly really steams Doggett.

Poor Saldana has been caught in the crossfire. According to The Morning News, Saldana was on the Democrats’ short list — until the Republicans began backing her. Then, she was off the Democratic list. Read our recent stories about the dueling Texas lists here and here.

Read here a joint news release Cornyn issued with Hutchison demanding the Lone Star State Democrats back Saldana. Saldana is not on the Democratic delegation’s official list, despite being a Democratic donor to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.

The Federalist Society has been an incubator for conservative legal talent. During the Bush administration, it served as a stepping stone to high-ranking legal jobs.

Cornyn told the group:

“I have not heard a single legitimate reason offered by them to oppose her,” Cornyn said. “The real reason for opposition is rooted more in politics, not merit.”

The Democrats are pushing for either Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore or Dallas civil lawyer Roger Williams for the Northern District spot.

Hutchison, meanwhile, has turned her attention to running for the Republican nomination for governor, challenging Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R).

Texas’s Republican senators and the state’s House Democrats have submitted separate lists of U.S. Attorney recommendations to the White House, setting the scene for a partisan shootout.

John Cornyn (gov)

We reported yesterday that Sen. John Cornyn is threatening to block anyone but Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana for the U.S. Attorney post in North Texas. And the Texas House Democrats, led by delegation chairman Rep. Lloyd Doggett, don’t want Saldana. So that’s one showdown.

Then today, we got our hands on this news release issued by Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison that appears to raise the stakes. The Republican senators, not willing to be cut out of the nomination process just because a Democrat now holds the White House, have submitted a complete list of candidates for all four of the state’s U.S. Attorney offices.

In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Cornyn reaffirmed his intention to block any U.S. Attorney nominee that did not go through his Republican screening committee. ”It’s the president’s prerogative to nominate anybody he wants,” Cornyn said. “But it’s the prerogative of the Senate to decide whether those individuals will be confirmed.”

Here is the list of the GOP recommended candidates, from the Cornyn-Hutchison news release:

Eastern District:

-John B. Stevens Jr. (Recommended by Texas senators and Doggett): He is a judge in the Jefferson County Criminal District Court in Texas.

-John Malcolm Bales (Recommended by Texas senators): He is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

Northern District:

-Sarah Saldana (Recommended by Texas senators): The Assistant U.S. Attorney heads the fraud and public corruption division in the Dallas-based Northern District.

Southern District of Texas:

-Kenneth Magidson (Recommended by Texas senators): The Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Houston-based office heads the organized crime drug enforcement task force for the Southwest region.

Western District of Texas:

-Michael McCrum (Recommended by Texas senators and Doggett): He is a San Antonio-based lawyer at the Thompson & Knight law firm, where he focuses on white collar criminal defense. Read more about him here.

-Robert Pitman (Recommended by Texas senators): He is a U.S. magistrate judge in the Western District of Texas.

In two instances, the candidates picked by the senators were also acceptable to Democrats — and they now appear on their way toward nomination. As we reported Wednesday, they are McCrum in San Antonio and Stevens for the Beaumont-based Eastern district. Doggett issued this news release Wednesday formally recommending McCrum and Stevens.

Doggett said in the news release that he reached agreement with the White House before making those two recommendations on behalf of the Texas Democrats. The negotiation included ”tense consultations” between Doggett and the senators, The Austin American-Statesman reported yesterday. The Obama White House has been reluctant to put names forward that Republican senators don’t support.

It would appear that Doggett has had to retreat somewhat from his tough talk earlier in the year. In an interview with Main Justice in June, he insisted the Democratic delegation would have the final say on recommendations to the White House. But Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, in Doggett’s Austin home base, was the congressman’s first choice for the Western District, the Austin American-Statesman reported. But Escamilla didn’t have the support of the Republican senators and was eliminated.

Texas Democrats support Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore and Dallas civil lawyer Roger Williams for the Northern District. But in the face of apparent opposition from the GOP senators, the Democrats have made no formal announcement.

“We thought Sarah Saldana was the best candidate and that’s why we sent her name to the White House,” Cornyn told reporters yesterday about his Northern District choice. “My hope is that the White House will choose her and make that appointment.”

It’s unclear why the House Democrats snubbed Saldana, whom the Morning News describes as “a candidate with strong Democratic credentials.” She played a key role in a Dallas City Hall corruption trial that some Democrats cast as politically motivated, but Johnson said her involvement was not a factor.

Doggett said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News that the Texas Democratic delegation “never sought confrontation with our senators.”

“I understand they were more comfortable with an inside Republican process, but elections matter,” he said. “Insisting that one and only one person whom they select can be appointed to one of these positions would be a clear abuse of authority.”

Time was, members of the president’s party steered U.S. Attorney recommendations to the White House. But in Texas, a state proudly resistant to, er, convention, Sen. John Cornyn (R) is threatening to block anyone but Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana for the U.S. Attorney post in North Texas. It’s the latest salvo in Cornyn’s long-running feud with Texas House Democrats over who’s in control of the process.

The Dallas Morning News has the story.

Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison plucked Saldana out of a group of candidates evaluated by their screening committee. Saldana heads the Fraud and Public Corruption Division in the Dallas-based Northern District.

“It’s the president’s prerogative to nominate anybody he wants,” Cornyn said, echoing comments he made to us in July. “But it’s the prerogative of the Senate to decide whether those individuals will be confirmed.”

Cornyn’s remarks come a day after Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) slipped two names to the White House for U.S. Attorney in the state’s Western and Eastern districts. Read our coverage here.

The Austin Democrat made the recommendations on behalf of the Texas Democratic House delegation, which has “completed its consultation with the White House and has reached agreement,” according to a news release from Doggett’s office.

White House counsel Greg Craig had tried to mediate this feud, without much success, and in a manner that managed to infuriate the House Democrats back in March. But Craig is reportedly on his way out of the White House after he was blamed for botching the politics of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility closing. It’s unclear who’s in charge of this mess now down at 1600 Pennsylvania.

According to the Morning News, Cornyn and Huchison also sent the White House a list of names on Wednesday – for all four U.S. Attorney posts in Texas. We will let you know when we find out who they recommended.

Bur for now, we return to the Northern District.

The Morning News reports:

Texas House Democrats, including Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, have rejected Saldana in favor of Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Terri Moore and Dallas civil lawyer Roger Williams. Other names could be considered, and a spokesman for the chairman of the House Democratic delegation, Lloyd Doggett, said Wednesday that “consultations” are ongoing.

It’s unclear why the delegation snubbed Saldana, whom the newspaper describes as “a candidate with strong Democratic credentials.” She played a key role in a Dallas City Hall corruption trial that some Democrats cast as politically motivated, but Johnson said her involvement was not a factor.

Cornyn interviewed Moore and Williams but said he couldn’t support them for the post. “We thought Sarah Saldana was the best candidate, and that’s why we sent her name to the White House,” he told the Morning News. “My hope is the White House will choose her and make that appointment. At this point I’m not prepared to support any other individual.”