The “scandal” involving the firing of nine U.S. attorneys during the Bush administration set Washington ablaze. Improper politicization! Prosecutors must be above partisan politics! We remember it well. Now comes word that the U.S. attorney for Alexandria, Virginia — who, we are told, is in the running to prosecute Gitmo detainees — may be replaced by a candidate who used to work for and whose appointment is being pushed by Joe Biden. Who is this person? A lobbyist. The Washington Post reports:

Neil MacBride, who has been an associate deputy attorney general since January, is undergoing FBI background checks for the Alexandria job, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no appointment has been announced.

MacBride, 43, is a former federal prosecutor and a former chief counsel to Vice President Biden, and he was a vice president at the Business Software Alliance, which represents Microsoft, IBM and several other leading computer companies. He was a registered lobbyist for that organization in 2007, lobbying the Senate on topics such as copyright enforcement and cybersecurity, according to Senate records and federal officials.

It would be unusual for a recent corporate lobbyist to be a U.S. attorney, and some prosecutors and governmental watchdogs have asked whether appointing MacBride would run counter to the spirit of the Obama administration’s efforts to change the lobbying culture of Washington.

In any case this appointment would be questionable, but considering the role this U.S. attorney plays in the war on terror, the appointment is simply appalling. The Post explains:

The position has grown increasingly visible in recent years, as the Alexandria office has handled some of the nation’s highest-profile terrorism and national security cases. Law enforcement officials said it is especially important to have a new U.S. attorney in place because Alexandria is competing with the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan for the opportunity to prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and his accused co-conspirators.

I’m sure Sens. Leahy and Schumer, who were all over the U.S. attorney scandal in the Bush years, will be all over this. No?