Gordon Fischer is seeking a U.S. Attorney appointment

Jason Hancock has the story at Iowa Independent: former Iowa Democratic Party chairman Gordon Fischer wants to become the U.S. Attorney for Iowa’s southern district. He is asking prominent Democrats to “reach out to Sen. [Tom] Harkin on my behalf, with either a letter, or phone call, or (preferably) both.”

Fischer wasn’t a particularly early supporter of Barack Obama by Iowa standards, but he was an enthusiastic one, as any regular reader of his blog Iowa True Blue can attest.

Sometimes Fischer was a bit too caught up in the primary wars, by his own admission. Even though I never backed Hillary Clinton for president, I also felt Fischer went too far on more than one occasion (like when he approvingly quoted Andrew Sullivan’s casual reference to the Clintons as “sociopaths”).

One Clinton supporter even filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Fischer because of his blogging. The FEC found no evidence to substantiate the allegations made in that complaint.

I have no idea whether Fischer is the leading candidate the U.S. Attorney job. Anyone hear about other Iowa lawyers who are putting their names in for this one?

I have no opinion about who should get the appointment, as long as it’s someone who won’t prosecute members of the other political party on very thin evidence.

UPDATE: Someone in a position to know tells me that several others have applied for this position, including Iowa Assistant Attorney General Donn Stanley and Tom Henderson, chairman of the Polk County Democrats.

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desmoinesdem

  • Blue Dress Gordon

    Blue Dress Gordon Fischer?

    No thanks.

    When he was chairman, he never spent much time in the 4th district campaigning – I hope he doesn’t get it.

  • re: selection process

    The other thing to consider is these picks are generally based on recommendations from the Senators representing the area.  So, Harkin will have the largest influence on who is named U.S. Attorney.

    • I wonder if it will be different

      since Obama comes from the legal profession more than other recent presidents (even compared to Bill Clinton, who did have a law degree). I would expect that Obama’s old friends from law school or from the Chicago legal community will have some input on the US attorney appointments as well.

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