The Flanigan Sideswipe (The pleasures of government service.)

From OpinionJournal.com:

If you want to know why the federal government is staffed with so many mediocrities, consider the experience of Timothy Flanigan, who last week asked President Bush to withdraw his nomination for Deputy Attorney General.

Mr. Flanigan's qualifications include working as Deputy White House Counsel in Mr. Bush's first term and as an Assistant Attorney General under President George H. W. Bush. He was a partner at a Washington law firm and most recently has been part of the post-Kozlowski clean-up team as general counsel for Tyco International. He was appointed by Mr. Bush in May, had his hearing in July, and was on his way to confirmation last month.

Then Mr. Bush's poll ratings sank, Katrina hit and Democrats saw an opening to pound Mr. Flanigan as part of their assault on "cronyism." At Democrats' request, the Judiciary Committee on Thursday scheduled a second hearing to explore the nominee's "ties" to indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Those "ties" had already been explored at length last summer at Mr. Flanigan's hearing, as well as in his written responses to follow-up questions--and nothing untoward was found.

Mr. Flanigan had authorized Tyco's outside law firm in early 2003 to hire Mr. Abramoff to lobby Congress on a tax issue in which Tyco had an interest. This was long before Mr. Abramoff became a Beltway preoccupation and two years before the lobbyist was indicted on another matter.