Drudge Retort is reporting that Pat Fitzgerald, the darling of this blogsite, has been named interim chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee for US Attorney’s (AGAC) which makes him the pre-eminent advocate for the USA’s within the DOJ. (More here.)

A) Could not happen to a nicer guy.

B) Could not have chosen anyone better qualified.

C) He has what I consider to be an excellent operating philosophy for thinking about the relationship between the individual US Attorney’s offices and Main Justice.

The analogy I have heard him use on several occasions is that the individual US Attorneys are like captains of a ship. Each ship (each USAO) is part of a larger navy. The Department of the Navy (or the admiral of the fleet) can set the destination and uniform standards to be observed on all ships. However, each captain decides how to set sail for that destination and determines the assignments aboard ships.

I think that strikes the right note with respect to independence within a larger group effort. Although the promotion is said to be interim, I hope his view becomes not only the dominant view within the Department, but also becomes a long standing policy that survives beyond any one administration.