U.S. Attorneys and Assistants

I'm hardly an expert in the U.S. Attorney firing controversy. But this latest from Andrew Sullivan roils me a bit, because Andrew was on his high horse earlier about how the Bush Administration was packing the bureacuracy with evangelical Christians whom Andrew and others think are unqualified for their jobs in part because they didn't go to top flight law schools. But this time Andrew goes after interm U.S. Attorney Scott Schools, who actually DOES have both experience as a prosecutor and is a graduate of some top flight schools. "Money" line from Schools' bio:

>>Mr. Schools graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a degree in mathematics, and he received his law degree, with honors, from the University of Texas School of Law.<<

I know a little bit about Scott Schools' experience. He was an assistant U.S. Attorney in South Carolina during the first Bush Administration. That office, under U.S. Attorney Bart Daniel, prosecuted "Operation Lost Trust," which led to bribery convictions of several S.C. lawmakers and helped fuel a much-needed ethics reform in the South Carolina General Assembly. The investigation was much-criticized, and there's no point in going into all of the background. The ethics reform would not have happened without that prosecution. I guess that's not worth mentioning because it would be a counterweight to donating to Strom Thurmond.

UPDATE:

Welcome Andrew Sullivan readers. As you can read from my post, I am not weighing in on the facts of the U.S. Attorney controversy, because I just don't know the facts. I remember the Lost Trust case, and I see from Scott Schools' bio that he went to some top-flight schools. Geez, he graduated cum laude in math, for cryin' out loud. Me, I barely made it out of algebra 2A in 10th grade. And to do the math for you -- that ended in January 1979.