Opinion: A helpful Ford idea for Biden: Choose an apolitical attorney general
As the Justice Department under Atty. Gen. William Barr continues to be accused of doing President Trump’s dirty work, former Vice President Joe Biden has an opportunity. He should make rehabilitating the image of the department a major theme of his campaign and, if elected, his administration.
In doing so, Biden should look to the example of a former president who served in the aftermath of Watergate — a scandal that saw John Mitchell, who had served as President Nixon’s attorney general before resigning to head Nixon's re-election committee, sentenced to prison.
The president I have in mind is not Jimmy Carter, who was elected in 1976 after promising a government as good as the people. During his campaign Carter proposed taking the attorney general out of politics and prescribing a term of six years. But that idea went nowhere.
No, the president whose example Biden should follow if elected is the incumbent Carter defeated, Gerald Ford. Amid the crisis in confidence left by Watergate, Ford chose as his attorney general not a political intimate such as Mitchell (or Robert F. Kennedy, who was President John F. Kennedy's brother) but an apolitical legal scholar. Edward H. Levi, named attorney general by Ford in 1975, had been president of the University of Chicago and before that dean of its law school.
-more-
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-a-helpful-ford-idea-for-biden-choose-an-apolitical-attorney-general/ar-BB15V684?ocid=msn360
= new reply since forum marked as read
Kick in to the DU tip jar?
This week we're running a special pop-up mini fund drive. From Monday through Friday we're going ad-free for all registered members, and we're asking you to kick in to the DU tip jar to support the site and keep us financially healthy.
As a bonus, making a contribution will allow you to leave kudos for another DU member, and at the end of the week we'll recognize the DUers who you think make this community great.