Politics and prosecutors: tortuous route to an all-powerful office
by Mark Moseley - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Aspirants to the office of United States Attorney don’t openly campaign for it. That’s unseemly. Protocol dictates that they urge friends to lobby political party leaders on their behalf—governors, senators and representatives on down. The partisan bigwigs then narrow the list of aspiring candidates based on… what precisely? Loyalty? Patronage? Owed favors? We’ll never find out. Be assured, though, that the eventual nominee will be touted as a capable and impartial servant of the law— whether or not these virtues were sought or detected.

The state leaders submit their list to the president who customarily selects a nominee from it. After FBI background checks and a review by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, if all goes well the lucky aspirant is appointed to a four-year term.

In other words, it’s a murky, high-stakes political dance on three very different levels: personal, state and national. The key determinations are made behind closed doors. To top it off, weird surprises occur; especially in the Eastern District of Louisiana.