Patterico's Pontifications

12/7/2018

Trump Nominates Bill Barr for Attorney General

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:55 am



Great pick. The guy will have the greatest sense of humor of any Attorney General in generations. He might have trouble getting confirmed, though … a very problematic clip has emerged showing Barr with anger issues, a chauvinistic attitude towards women, and a troubling tendency to curse in public:

“Where are all those old-school women who could just take your day out on?” Tsk, tsk.

Wait, I’ve just been handed a note … it appears the Bill Barr actually being nominated is … Bill Barr, Attorney General under the late George H.W. Bush.

President Trump announced he will nominate William Barr to serve as the next attorney general. Mr. Trump broke the news Friday to reporters on the White House South Lawn on his way to Kansas City.

CBS News reported on Thursday that Barr, who served as attorney general under the late President George H.W. Bush, was a top contender for the role.

“I want to confirm that Bill Barr, one of the most respected jurists in the country, highly respected lawyer, former Attorney General under the Bush administration, a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man,” Mr. Trump told reporters Friday. “I did not know him for – until recently when I went through the process of looking at people. He was my first choice from day one. Respected by Republicans. Respected by Democrats. He will be nominated for the United States attorney general and hopefully that process will go very quickly. And I think it will go very quickly.

The first question Big Media is asking, of course: will Barr be pro-Mueller or anti-Mueller? The New York Times tried to read the tea leaves yesterday:

Mr. Barr has criticized aspects of the Russia investigation, including suggesting that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, hired too many prosecutors who had donated to Democratic campaigns. Mr. Barr has also defended Mr. Trump’s calls for a new criminal investigation into his defeated 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, including over a uranium mining deal the Obama administration approved when she was secretary of state.

“There is nothing inherently wrong about a president calling for an investigation,” Mr. Barr told The New York Times last year. “Although an investigation shouldn’t be launched just because a president wants it, the ultimate question is whether the matter warrants investigation.”

Mr. Barr added then that he saw more basis for investigating the uranium deal than any supposed conspiracy between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia. “To the extent it is not pursuing these matters, the department is abdicating its responsibility,” he said.

Reading Mr. Barr’s comments, I can draw only one conclusion: he’s nowhere near as funny as the guy from the video clip above.

UPDATE: I’ve been handed another note: Bill Burr the comedian is Bill Burr, not Bill Barr. Thank goodness. I was having trouble finding him on YouTube!

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

25 Responses to “Trump Nominates Bill Barr for Attorney General”

  1. In all seriousness, this guy is better than that Whitaker clown.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  2. Concur. I’m worry he’s more creaky (a la Giuliani) than crooked.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  3. James Baker is also itchin’ to get back in the game, or so I am told. And John Sununu looked like he still has some wisdom to dispense.

    JVW (42615e)

  4. The sooner he’s confirmed the better. Trump’s picks for Chief of Staff and UN Ambassador don’t look near as good.
    Tillerson was a good pick because at least he tried to dissuade Trump from doing illegal things.

    Paul Montagu (8afb2a)

  5. Barr’s as good an appointment as this President is going to make, and he should be confirmed ASAP. There’s a part of me that wants to make this appointment conditional on letting Mueller finish up, but Trump is a politician now, and he has enough sense that firing Mueller now gets impeachment started in the House, all the bad stuff leaking everywhere, and conviction at least a possibility. So, let’s get this one done, Mitch.

    Appalled (d07ae6)

  6. Seems like a solid pick.

    In other news… https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/315139/

    Colonel Haiku (97f61b)

  7. that was funny.
    thank you.

    mg (8cbc69)

  8. Like the Iran deal, there was no statute behind this 150 billion dollar ransom to the mullahs

    Narciso (d1f714)

  9. Fast and furious was that legal, no one went to jail for it

    Narciso (d1f714)

  10. Yes grenell would be better but hes in Germany.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  11. You scared me for a minute, urbanleftbehind. Barr is 68. He’s got a couple of good years left.

    nk (dbc370)

  12. Maybe I’ll take note of Burr’s inevitable Netflix 1-hour show. The hour-long standup routines are either my go-to-sleep or housecleaning viewing.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  13. Yeah, I just figured Bush – I’s administration plus 30 ish years. He does look younger than that age, prolly the private sector board living.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  14. For trial lawyers, it is a little like athletes, experience but also youthful energy, so you’re looking at around age thirty-five to fifty for your gold medalists. But here, knowing his way around the workings of the Justice Deparment is near 100% of the job, just as long as he has enough vim to see that the people under him are doing their job right.

    nk (dbc370)

  15. Trump labels T-Rex ‘dumb as a rock.’

    Would that be oil shale or gold ore, Captain, sir?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  16. yes, he was the same age then as whittaker is now,

    narciso (d1f714)

  17. Did he ‘roll through the cablers’ last weekend, catch a 41 bio and heard the name spoken with high praise and affection– or did he confuse it with the late First Lady’s family moniker?!

    The first draft of history awaits.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  18. This is loosely DOJ related, but Cohen wasn’t as cooperative as his lawyers led us to believe (link).

    “This office understands that the information provided by Cohen to (Mueller) was ultimately credible and useful to its ongoing investigation,” prosecutors wrote, but said they would not give him a legal letter detailing his cooperation because “Cohen repeatedly declined to provide full information full information about the scope of any additional criminal conduct in which he may have engaged or had knowledge.”

    Paul Montagu (973933)

  19. I thought maybe he confused him with the daffy Georgia libertarian Bob Barr, or given William Barr’s UWS upbringing, was a close relative of George Costanza’s womanizing real estate titan first boss.

    urbanleftbehind (380f76)

  20. as pointed out in the other thread, there was no direct contact with the Russians, per cohen,

    narciso (d1f714)

  21. Did you know that there are different kinds of stones? Among them are capstones and headstones. In any other Presidential administration, Attorney General would be a fine capstone to a legal career. In Trump’s administration, it’s a headstone.

    nk (dbc370)

  22. lol again watching Bill

    mg (8cbc69)

  23. mg, what do you think of a man, whose lawyer gets himself into legal trouble covering up his shtupping of a hooker for him, telling the prosecutor to throw the book at him? Would you even call him a man?

    nk (dbc370)

  24. Considering this was all a put up job. By likely combine operatives, you know it works over there.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  25. fun times, nk. Orange man exposing everyone and everything.

    mg (8cbc69)


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