From Truthout:
Few in Washington have envied Paul McNulty over the past three months. But with the deputy attorney general's resignation last week amid the scandal over the firings of at least eight U.S. attorneys, there's one person whose position might be even less desirable: McNulty's yet-to-be-named successor.
"I'd rather trade places with Jose Padilla," jokes Viet Dinh, a former senior Justice official under then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Whoever does succeed McNulty in the Justice Department's No. 2 post may not be facing a lifetime in prison, but he or she is certain to weather more than a few trials of a distinctly Washington variety. McNulty's replacement will confront a posse of hostile Democrats in Congress, serious questions over whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will remain in place, and a dysfunctional department demoralized by its current leadership.
For a White House nearing the end of a second term and suffering from low approval ratings, the drive to find a successor before McNulty departs later this summer will not be easy. "I think there are really quite a few people who wouldn't take the job," says Jamie Gorelick, who herself was deputy attorney general from 1994 to 1997 and is now in private practice at WilmerHale. "I think it's a greatly devalued position right now in the eyes of many people."
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