# Let's discuss Solictor General (Acting-AG) Paul Clement **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 27, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143 "2007-08-27T20:23:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143/1 "2007-08-27T20:23:48Z")
When the resignation of Alberto Gonzales takes effect, Solicitor General Paul Clement will be the senior Justice Department official and the [acting Attorney General](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070827/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/gonzales_clement). I really don’t know too much about him. I know that he is the person to whom the congressional calls for an independent prosecutor on the US Attorney scandal have been addressed, Gonzales having recused himself. The sense I get is that he is fairly well-respected and, to the extent that is possible in this administration, independent of the White House. So, what do people think of Paul Clement? How do we think his leadership of the Justice Department will be, particularly in light of the cloud hanging over its head? Although others closer to the White House, including Homeland Security Secretary [Michael Chertoff](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=434135) have been discussed as possible successors to Gonzales, does Clement have a chance to get the job outright, either as Bush’s initial nominee or after others have struck out? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143/2 "2007-08-27T20:31:56Z")
I don’t know that much about Clement except that he’s generally well thought-of. But whomever gets the nomination (and I doubt it’ll be Chertoff) is looking at a couple of nasty things: 1. A possibly brutal questioning. 2. Only 17 or so months in office before the new President tosses him out. Not a fun time. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143/3 "2007-08-27T20:51:43Z")
From [Salon](http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/08/27/clement/index.html): > [@](#): > > If you think Clement will be some sort of breath of fresh air, think again. > > Clement has served as acting attorney general in a limited way before, overseeing the Justice Department’s responses to congressional investigations into the firing of U.S. attorneys and other matters after Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty both were forced to recuse themselves. In that role, Clement has helped arm the White House with the legal arguments it has been using to stonewall Congress on documents it wants to see and witnesses it wants to question. > > Our concern about Clement is of a slightly older vintage. When Clement appeared before the Supreme Court on behalf of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the Jose Padilla case on April 28, 2004, skeptical justices asked him about the risk that a detainee like Padilla might be abused while in custody. Clement’s response: “Where the government is on a war footing … you have to trust the executive to make the kind of quintessential military judgments that are involved in things like that.” When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that some governments engage in “mild torture” to obtain information from detainees, Clement shot back: “Well, our executive doesn’t.” > > Eight hours later, CBS News aired the first photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib. > > The questions we asked at the time: Did Clement know, at the time of the Padilla argument, that the Department of Defense was investigating grave abuses at Abu Ghraib? Did he know that Joint Chiefs chairman Richard Myers had been working to keep CBS from broadcasting photographs of the abuse? Did he know, as some of his colleagues at Justice did, that the Bush administration, with the approval of the Justice Department, had instituted policies allowing the CIA to use “severe” interrogation techniques on detainees suspected of being high-level al-Qaida members? Not surprisingly, these questions have remained unanswered. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143/4 "2007-08-28T01:18:32Z")
Attention has been overly focused on the topmost job at Miniluv, perhaps. [The resignations over the last few months:](http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004012.php) > [@](#): > > 1. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, today. > > 2. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty announced his resignation May 14th. > > 3. Acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer (the Department’s #3) announced that he was withdrawing his nomination for the position June 22nd. > > 4. Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ chief of staff, resigned March 13th. > > 5. Department White House liaison Monica Goodling resigned April 6th. > > 6. Michael Elston, McNulty’s chief of staff, resigned June 15th. > > 7. Executive Director of the Executive Office of United States Attorneys Michael Battle, announced his resignation in mid-February. > > 8. Bradley Schlozman, an attorney in the Counsel to the Director staff at the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, formerly the U.S. attorney for Kansas City and a former acting assistant attorney for the Civil Rights Division, resigned mid August. > > And, finally, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Wan Kim was another notable resignation (on August 23rd), although Kim’s troubles were unrelated to the firings scandal. Clement is already the only one there minding the store. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143/5 "2007-08-28T01:56:33Z")
He clerked for Scalia, worked for Ashcroft, and filed briefs with the Supreme Court on behalf of Bush in Bush v. Gore. Has worked in the Administration since 2001. Loyal Bushie. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143/6 "2007-08-28T02:22:26Z")
[James Comey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Comey) was mentioned in another thread, and would be my pick, as he has shown a lot of independence from the administration. Probably not likely for that reason, though. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143/7 "2007-08-28T22:14:07Z")
A time [article](http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20070828/us_time/thegonzalesreplacementdilemma) on possible successors to Gonzales has this to say about Clement: Clement, who has argued more 40 cases before the Supreme Court, is well liked by lawyers both inside and outside the Justice Department. Neal Katyal, a Georgetown Law professor who argued in front of the Supreme Court against Clement in the case of Osama bin Laden’s driver Salim Ahmed Hamdan, describes Clement as “extremely bright, quite conservative and quite fair.” Adds Katyal: “One of the most intimidating things about arguing against him is he stands up at the podium with no notes.” What Clement could bring to the job that Gonzales lacked is political acumen. Early in his career, Clement served as a senior staff member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, experience that could serve him well as he takes over a department that has had a rocky recent relationship with Congress. It’s possible that Bush would leave Clement in office for the remainder of his term. The President chose pointed compliments when he announced Clement would be stepping in for Gonzales. “Paul has a reputation of fairness,” said Bush, “and earned the respect and confidence of the entire Justice Department.” I think that if Clement is nominated for the AG position, he will have the great advantage of being the incumbent, at least in an acting capacity. If they confirm him, it will do no more harm than leaving him to be acting AG (and will avoid the chance of a more noxious choice), and if they reject him, he will still be acting AG. ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143/8 "2007-08-29T16:29:17Z")
Given what we’ve seen over the last 6 years it’s not unreasonable to expect anyone except someone willing to do Bush’s bidding. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-solictor-general-acting-ag-paul-clement/417143/9 "2007-08-29T16:50:07Z")
Someone has to run the DoJ, and Clement is the best we’re likely to get before January 2009.