Flanigan Withdraws Nomination For Deputiy Atty Gen! This is HUGH!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20051007/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_justice_nominee_1

Flanigan Withdraws Nomination at Justice
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Timothy E. Flanigan has withdrawn as a nominee to be deputy attorney general amid a delay in his confirmation because of his dealings with indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, The Associated Press has learned.

Flanigan, a senior lawyer for Tyco International Ltd., wrote President Bush that he was withdrawing because of "uncertainty concerning the timing of my confirmation." The AP obtained a copy of the letter Friday.

He was nominated in May to be the No. 2 official at the Justice Department — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' top deputy. It's a role he also held when Gonzales was White House counsel in Bush's first term. But Flanigan's nomination has been held up over questions about his connection to Abramoff.

Flanigan joined Tyco in 2002, after leaving the White House. He has told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Abramoff, subject of a federal investigation into his lobbying activities, began lobbying on behalf of Tyco in the spring of 2003 and bragged about his ties to then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Karl Rove, Bush's top political aide.

continued at above link.

I just read about this morning in Maureen Dowd's column.

http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?d_issuesearch=on&f_subsection=sEDITORIAL+DESK&p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%2010D1E232951B55E8%20)&d_place=NYTB&p_multi=NYTB&f_issue=2005-10-08&f_publisher=&p_product=NewsBank&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=L61U63LYMTEyNzEzNDYwNi40NzA4MTU6MToxMjpuY2RtaW51dGVtYW4

But there is some sign, at least, that there are limits to cronyism, even for the Bush administration. The president had nominated Timothy Flanigan to be deputy attorney general, a job where he would oversee all U.S. attorneys, the criminal division of Justice and the F.B.I. His qualification for this was a stint as Alberto Gonzales's deputy White House counsel, where he helped write the torture memos. In Congressional testimony at one point, he said that waterboarding was a good thing, because it doesn't leave visible or permanent marks. After his White House stint, Mr. Flanigan was a senior executive at Tyco International, where his main contribution was hiring Jack Abramoff, the Republican influence peddler, to protect Tyco's offshore tax shelters. Yesterday, Mr. Flanigan withdrew amid growing questions.

[Lexingtonian]

1. Everyone seems to be running into Hugh lately :-)

Before the Bush Presidency ends they'll be importing shills and crooks from Third World countries to fill appointment jobs. That's how extensive the Abramoff/DeLay web of corruption is going to turn out to be.

[robcon]

2. I think it's HUGH also.

It's not huge, though, since Bush will just nominate another flunky.