From Truthout:
By Jack Torry and Mark Niquette
The Columbus Dispatch
When Greg White wanted the job of U.S. attorney in Cleveland five years ago, he delivered his pitch to just about any Republican who mattered in Ohio.
"I talked to the governor at the Lorain County Fair today," White e-mailed Brian K. Hicks, chief of staff to then-Gov. Bob Taft. "Do you think that the governor would be willing to call the president on this issue? ... Is there anything else we can do?"
The longtime Lorain County prosecutor also expressed frustration to Hicks about the process and declared, "I doubt there are too many county chairs for the Bush campaign that worked harder."
Hicks told White in another e-mail that he and Ohio GOP Chairman Robert T. Bennett had talked to top presidential adviser Karl Rove: "I think we made a strong and compelling case for you, but we need to keep pushing."
White's lobbying campaign apparently hit all the right connections; in March 2003, President Bush nominated him as U.S. attorney for the northern district of Ohio. His primary rival for the job, Craig Morford, was selected last week by Bush to be the acting No. 2 official at the Justice Department, making him White's boss.
The e-mails help give a sense of the role that politics plays in the process.
White acknowledges that it's "a little like making sausage."
But he and others involved make no apologies, saying that all candidates for such appointments seek political support and that politics is part of the competition - along with demonstrating the right qualifications and passing a rigorous background check.
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