A bipartisan group of lawyers who have held the same job for which James M. Cole has been nominated think he should be confirmed as the No. 2 person in the U.S. Department of Justice. But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from holding up Cole’s nomination for five months, making it the longest confirmation delay in 30 years for the post of deputy attorney general.

 

Cole, a Washington, DC, lawyer and longtime friend of Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., was nominated in May, and made it through the Senate Judiciary Committee in July. But since then his nomination has languished, and could die altogether if the Senate does not act before Congress adjourns.

 

Republicans have taken exception to Cole’s earlier criticism of the Bush administration’s treatment of terrorism attacks as acts of war rather than as crimes against civilians. He also took part in the investigation of Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) for ethics violations that led to a House of Representatives reprimand of Gingrich in 1997. Cole also represented Saudi Arabia’s minister of the interior, Prince Nayef, in a lawsuit brought by victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and he spent five years as a consultant to AIG.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

 

No Sign of Senate Action on Justice Nominee Cole (by Jerry Markon, Washington Post)

Jame Cole’s Answers to Questions for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary (pdf)