-Caveat Lector-
AP Top News
Justice Picks May Rebut Bush Critics
by MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A veteran antitrust enforcer who helped draft
the government's merger guidelines is expected to be nominated to
head the Justice Department's antitrust division, a Bush
administration official said Monday.
If named by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate,
Washington lawyer Charles A. James, 46, would become the first
black to head the division permanently. He was acting assistant
attorney general in charge of it for several months in 1992
during the first Bush administration.
An administration official, requesting anonymity, said President
Bush was expected to announced James' nomination later this week
along with two other top Justice Department nominees, whose names
were disclosed by administration officials last week. They are
Larry D. Thompson, an Atlanta lawyer and former U.S. attorney, as
deputy attorney general, and Theodore Olson, a Washington lawyer
who argued the Supreme Court case on Florida voting that sealed
Bush's election, as solicitor general.
Thompson also is black. Olson headed the Justice Department's
Office of Legal Counsel during the Reagan administration.
At a Monday news conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft left
little doubt that two of the nominations are imminent. ''Mr.
Thompson and Mr. Olson are very outstanding individuals, whose
records of public service, including service with this Department
of Justice, are exemplary records,'' Ashcroft said, noting that
it was up to President Bush to announce such nominations.
Administration officials say they expect the selection of two
blacks among the first three Justice Department nominees to serve
under Ashcroft will go a long way toward rebutting critics who
charged during his confirmation proceedings that he was racially
insensitive. Ashcroft has interviewed all prospective candidates
and participated in the selection process.
Ashcroft refused to back off his opposition that blocked black
Missouri Supreme Court judge Ronnie White from a federal
judgeship and would not rule out another visit to Bob Jones
University, a school which had a ban on interracial dating at the
time Ashcroft accepted an honorary degree there.
In his confirmation hearing, Ashcroft denounced racial
discrimination and pointed out that he set a record as Missouri
governor for appointing black judges.
James, now a lawyer here for the Cleveland-based firm of Jones,
Day, Reavis & Pogue, has served in both of the government's
antitrust agencies.
>From 1979-1985, he was first an attorney and then assistant to
the director in the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of
Competition, which reviews mergers. During 1991-1992, he was
deputy assistant attorney general for policy in the Justice
Department's antitrust division, and then briefly acting head of
the division.
''He's extraordinarily bright and well-steeped in antitrust law
and policy,'' said James Rill, who headed the antitrust division
when James served there. ''He's got broad experience and a
balanced outlook.''
As chief deputy to Rill, James was extensively involved in the
1992 revisions to the government's guidelines for mergers between
competitors.
These guidelines were the first ones issued jointly by the
Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission. They are
still in force, with only a section on efficiency added in 1997.
The 1992 guidelines expanded on those issued in 1982 by adding
new analyses of the competitive effects of mergers and of the
ease of entry for new competitors who might want to enter the
affected market.
At the antitrust division, James also helped craft the $290
million in fines, forfeitures and compensation that Salomon Inc.
paid in 1992 to avoid criminal prosecution for its admitted
illegal bidding in the Treasury bond market. He headed the review
that approved the Armco-Cyclops steel merger. And he conducted
talks with Japanese officials on antitrust issues.
His first big decision would be reviewing the Clinton
administration's pending lawsuit to break up Microsoft Corp. The
company's appeal is to be heard by the U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia in late February.
Observers expect the administration will not seek to modify the
government's position or try to negotiate a settlement until
after the appeals court rules, because that court may overturn or
modify a U.S. district judge's breakup order on its own.
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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