I don't envy whoever gets this position. Whether the investigation into the firing of the 9 prosecutors will go on is up in the air. Some want to drop it. Others want to continue. Michael Chertoff's name has been bandied about as the new A.G. He was at the DOJ previously and is widely recognized as the writer of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. He has a major problem though. He has dual citizenship – U.S. and Israel. It's expected that this would pose a problem.

Slate has good run-down of the possible replacements that includes James Comey, the Deputy Attorney General who mesmerized all of us with his tale of the “late night run to the hospital” to get a doped-up John Ashcroft to sign off on a spying program. (See Is Gonzales Lying? and The Weekly Wonk, James Comey & The Rush-to-the-Hospital Story, 5/19/07 and Late-Night Hospital Run, 6/2/07.) The list also includes Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor who went looking for whoever leaked Valerie Plame’s name to the press as a covert CIA agent. Interestingly, another person is Larry Thompson, another former deputy attorney general under John Ashcroft who is now senior vice president and general counsel of PepsiCo. It seems his only claim to fame is that he’s never done anything. And of course there’s Paul Clement, the Deputy Attorney General who will take over for Gonzales until a replacement can be found.

On top of these there’s speculation that Senator Joe Lieberman (I, CT), a former Democrat who was ousted in the primary and turned Independent to win another 6 years. Lieberman typically carries water for Bush. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch (R, UT) has also been mentioned. Both states have Republican governors who would appoint the replacements and, therefore, no Republican seat in the Senate would be lost.

If you look at Bush’s penchant for picking an unknown, untried, unqualified person out of his hat to nominate for an important position (remember Harriet Meirs), it seems likely that none of the above will be nominated. I’m sure that the next few weeks will see lots of weather balloons and false flags. We’ll have to wait – with baited breath.