ASHTON ELLIS
Staff Writer
This week Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for Attorney General, is appearing before Senators for questioning. Historically, these sessions provide members in the party opposing the president an opportunity to embarrass him by posing tough questions to his nominee. Most nominees try to say as little as possible and hope they can get confirmed without saying anything politically incorrect. Mukasey should be different.
Mukasey should consider his nomination to be the 81st Attorney General for what it is: an opportunity to make the Attorney General’s office the premier cabinet post. In his remarks to the committee, Mukasey should outline a three-tiered strategy to define the primary mission of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
First, he should hire America’s top legal minds to address the best way to fight the War on Terror. Second, he should conduct a bottom-up review of the DOJ’s allocation of resources, and place a premium on the efficient administration of justice. Finally, he should inspire the next generation of legal professionals to take up the call to national service as attorneys in the DOJ.
After taking the oath of office, Mukasey should say that his first act as Attorney General will be to make a series of telephone calls to the best and brightest legal minds from academe, private practice and other sections of government.
The pitch is simple: in the next 12 months a body of your peers will issue the definitive legal statement on how best to fight the War on Terror. Do you want to help? The only criteria for selection would be some form of professional achievement in fighting the war. The only ideology necessary to serve would be a commitment to the motto, “We win; they lose.”
Turning his attention to the DOJ’s career attorneys, Mukasey should then outline a bottom-up strategic review of the 93 United States Attorneys’ offices. The review will include input from each office categorizing their cases to identify similarities among offices. This will help Mukasey match experienced staff with specialized problems anywhere in the country. Each report also will include a one-page proposal for the enhancement, alteration, or termination of existing national policy.
The United States Attorneys are the primary vehicle for implementing the DOJ’s goals; their voices should be heard when creating them. These initiatives will be rolled out in an address to all 93 attorneys at a special meeting hosted by Mukasey in Washington, D.C.
Finally, Mukasey should focus his closing remarks on raising the public profile of the DOJ. He should commit his tenure in office to making the DOJ’s website the most user-friendly and visually intriguing government website in the country.
In order to inspire a passion for public service in the next generation of lawyers, he should establish paid internships and post-clerkship fellowships for America’s newest attorneys. These actions would help make the DOJ the natural progression from top grades in law school to serving the country with distinction. For patriotic attorneys there should be one place where it is undisputed their talents and passion will be fully realized: the DOJ.
With a little more than a year before the Bush administration ends, Mukasey has a unique opportunity to take control of his Senate testimony and by extension the country’s destiny. He should use his time in the national spotlight to focus the country’s attention on these three goals. If he does, he will please both the President who nominated him and honor the Constitution he swears to uphold.
10-15-2007
