Editorial: Faith in Justice a must

Friday, Sept. 14, 2007 | 7:37 a.m.

President Bush is considering former Solicitor General Theodore Olson as the next attorney general, and that would be a major mistake.

Having Olson take the reins from Alberto Gonzales, who turned the Justice Department into a partisan quagmire, would further diminish the department's credibility.

"Ted Olson will not be confirmed by the Senate," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "He's a partisan, and the last thing we need as an attorney general is a partisan."

Reid is correct. Olson is the wrong person for the job.

Olson was part of an orchestrated effort by conservative groups against President Bill Clinton and his wife, now Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in the 1990s. The groups waged a bitter war of partisan attacks. Olson went on to represent Bush in the Supreme Court case in 2000 that decided the election in Bush's favor.

Olson was narrowly confirmed as the solicitor general on a party-line vote and defended the administration's unconstitutional actions in the war on terrorism.

He would be a repeat of Gonzales, who put his loyalty to Bush ahead of his role as the nation's top law enforcement official, wrongly letting partisan hacks play politics with the daily workings of the Justice Department.

Bush shouldn't nominate Olson or any other individual who would be a divisive figure. His nomination would rightly be tied up, if not killed, in a battle in the Senate, and the Justice Department would continue without proper leadership.

Instead, Bush should be looking for someone with credibility among both Republicans and Democrats, who is above partisan rancor and is strong enough to stop the meddling of White House political operatives in the Justice Department.

Bush should act in the nation's best interest by working with Democrats to find the best person instead of setting up an unnecessary fight. That would be the right way to start to restore the public's confidence in the Justice Department.