The Bush Administration recently fired seven U.S. Attorneys.  The reason given was “performance issues.”  However, by all accounts all the fired attorneys were very competent.

U.S Attorneys are nominated by the President and confirmed by the US Senate. If a vacancy occurred midterm, the U.S. Attorney General could fill the position, but if the President did nominate, and the Senate confirm, the replacement within 120 days, the federal district court would appoint the replacement.  This statute was in place to prevent a President from firing US Attorney’s, and replacing them with hand-picked successors without confirmation of the Senate.  The Senate confirmation provision was in place to ensure some type of non-partisan oversight of the nominees. 

However, when the Patriot Act was renewed, a little noticed provision was added that eliminated the replacement safety net.  The provision allowed the White House (via the Attorney General) to replace the vacancies-permanently and without Senate confirmation.

Among those fired: 

US Attorney Carol Lam who prosecuted Randy “Duke” Cunningham and had further investigations underway.

The US Attorney (AZ) who is investigating Arizona US Rep. Rick Renzi.
 

Bud Cummings, who was replaced by Timothy Griffin, a Republican opposition research operative and Karl Rove buddy.

Kevin Ryan, who was investigating steroid use in MLB and stock option backdating.

In the past, US Attorneys were generally selected from the local communities.  Under Bush, many of these replacements have Bush Administration ties and are not from the area under which they are to serve. Since last March, the administration has named at least nine U.S. attorneys with administration ties.
 

From McClatchy News:

With Congress now controlled by the Democrats, critics fear that in some cases Gonzales is trying to skirt the need for Senate confirmation by giving new U.S. attorneys interim appointments for indefinite terms. Some legal scholars contend that the administration pushed for the change in the Patriot Act as part of its ongoing attempt to expand the power of the executive branch, a charge that administration officials deny.

Being named a U.S. attorney "has become a prize for doing the bidding of the White House or administration," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who's now a professor at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "In the past, there had been a great deal of delegation to the local offices. Now, you have a consolidation of power in Washington."

Marching towards authoritarianism--  step by step. 

Info:

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16555903.htm