Early Bush DOJ brainstorming about avoiding senate confirmation of US Attorneys?

[cal04]

Early Bush DOJ brainstorming about avoiding senate confirmation of US Attorneys?
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Memo describes installing unconfirmed prosecutors
Justice official asked how to bypass Senate
More than a year before the Bush administration has said it first considered firing US attorneys, a top Justice Department official asked lawyers to determine how the administration could temporarily fill vacant US attorney positions with appointees who had not been confirmed by the Senate.

In a September 2003 memo, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which answers legal questions for the president and his appointees, described a way to install a replacement US attorney who could serve up to 330 days without Senate confirmation.

But the memo also said that any appointee would eventually still have to win confirmation from the Senate or be approved by a federal court to continue serving. Two years later, the administration quietly got a provision inserted into the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill giving itself the power to permanently appoint replacement US attorneys without Senate or court approval.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/04/28/memo_describes_installing_unconfirmed_prosecutors/

[acmavm]

1. This alone, in other times of political awareness and a concern for

our country's survival, would have sent a corrupt administration into the dustbin of infamy.