President Bush appears ready to nominate Ted Olson for Attorney General, replacing one unprincipled partisan with another.

Here is how the NYT reported White House thinking:

Aides to Mr. Bush are calculating that Democrats, who spent months clamoring for Mr. Gonzales’s ouster, will pay a political price if they try to block confirmation of a new attorney general. The thinking inside the White House is that Democrats cannot call for new leadership at the Justice Department, then block it.

And of course, like clockwork, Senator McConnell gets on message:

“The Senate will soon be asked to confirm a new Attorney General. For the past several months, our Democratic colleagues have pleaded for this very thing. They have spoken at length about the importance of the Justice Department, and the urgent need to install new leadership there as soon as possible.

“They don’t want to make the pick. All they want is someone with ‘integrity’ and ‘experience’ who ‘respects the rule of law,’ and who can ‘hit the ground running.’ These are their words. The Senior Senator from New York has assured us that he and his colleagues will not ‘obstruct or impede’ such a nominee. Again, their own words. This was their plea and their promise.

“It now appears, however, that despite these promises, some of our Democratic colleagues may indeed obstruct and impede.