As expected, President Bush has named James Comey, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as the new Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. This is the number two position, under Ashcroft. Comey replaces Larry Thompson, who resigned a few months ago.

Kynn Bartlett over at Shock and Awe has a quote-filled post about Comey and asks our opinion.

Comey appears to be a dream appointment for Ashcroft. His tenacity in terrorism and financial fraud cases is well-known. Two things we haven't liked about his positions:In the case against attorney Lynne Stewart, Comey vowed to keep fighting even after the Judge threw out the terrorism charges against her.

Second, we don't like this quote from a brief he submitted in the Jose Padilla case:

. Comey, U.S. attorney for the Southern District... declared in a brief, "A court of the United States has no jurisdiction ... to enjoin the president in the performance of his official duties." (Source: The Legal Intelligencer August 29, 2003, available on Lexis.com.)

But we're not up in arms about Comey. We're sorry to see Larry Thompson go, but we doubt Bush and Ascroft would ever appoint anyone as reasonable as Thompson to that position again. In a sense, one tough prosecutor is the same as the next. We don't know of any attacks on Comey's integrity as a prosecutor or of charges of deliberate misconduct. We don't doubt we'll be criticizing his policies, but we have no criticism now of him as an appointee. That could change, of course, but that's our position now.