Todd Blanche doesn’t deserve to be attorney general

As the midterm elections approach, voters should watch how the U.S. Senate handles President Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche as the nation’s top law-enforcement officer. Blanche had a chance to prove himself as deputy attorney general. Instead, he collaborated with the most corrupt president in the nation’s history. 

The Senate’s Republican majority is now confronted with its own test of loyalty to the rule of law. If the Senate needs a reminder of the standards we should expect from an attorney general, it can look to the Watergate scandal in 1973, when Elliot Richardson appointed a special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, to investigate President Richard Nixon’s role in the now infamous break-in and cover-up.

In October, Nixon directed Richardson to fire Cox. Rather than capitulate, Richardson resigned. In his resignation letter to Nixon, Richardson explained: “At the time you appointed me, you gave me the authority to name a special prosecutor if I should consider it appropriate.”  

Richardson did so, making clear that “Although [Cox] will be in the Department of Justice and report to me — and only to me — he will be aware that his ultimate accountability is to the American people.” He also pledged he would “not countermand or interfere with the Special Prosecutor’s decisions or actions.”

“I trust that you understand that I could not in the light of these firm and repeated commitments carry out your direction [to discharge Cox.] Therefore,” said Richardson, “I feel that I have no choice but to resign.”

Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus then ascended to the top job;........

© The Hill