Justice Department's No. 3 Resigns

Truthout (AP): By Mary Clare Jalonick

Washington - President Bush's pick to be the No. 3 official in the Justice Department asked to have his nomination withdrawn Friday, four days before he was to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Bill Mercer sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales saying it was unlikely that the Senate would confirm him as associate attorney general, a post he has held on an interim basis since September. He plans to leave Washington and turn his full attention to his work as U.S. attorney for Montana....

Montana's two Democratic senators, Jon Tester and Max Baucus, have criticized Mercer for working two jobs and have called for him to resign as the state's U.S. attorney or give up his Justice Department post. In his letter, Mercer said he "heard the call" from the senators and said the change would address their concerns.

But a spokesman for Tester said Mercer's request for withdrawal "was too little, too late and something doesn't smell right."

"He decided to sneak out the back door only days before having to face, under oath, tough questions that he's been avoiding for months," said the spokesman, Matt McKenna. ...

The documents show that one of the fired prosecutors, Daniel Bogden of Nevada, claimed that Mercer told him the day he was fired that the dismissals were to make room for others to gain experience to let the Republican Party stack federal judgeships with loyalists.