Don't hold Mercer hostage in D.C.

Bill Mercer is the U.S. attorney for the district of Montana. He is also one of the highest-ranking officials in the Justice Department, nominated by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to be his second deputy.

You would think that would be good for Montana. As a state, we tend to have very little influence on the workings of the federal government. So when a native Montanan like Mercer gets a chance to help shape policy and influence decisions in Washington, D.C., we are generally glad.

It is therefore puzzling that Sen. Jon Tester is urging Mercer to resign as Montana's U.S. attorney.

Tester's argument is that Montana deserves a full-time U.S. attorney and that Mercer is too busy in Washington to handle his duties here.

But the fact of the matter is that Mercer's nomination has been held up in the Senate Judiciary Committee because of political gamesmanship. The Senate Democrats are intentionally stalling on this and other votes until they finish loudly banging the political trash cans handed to them by Gonzales over the firing of eight other U.S. prosecutors.

That's just wrong. Mercer's case has nothing to do with any other investigation at the Justice Department, and he and Montana both deserve a quick vote on his nomination.

Instead, we get calls for his resignation and now a bill to deny the Justice Department the flexibility of having its U.S. attorneys take posts in Washington to assist the attorney general in whatever way is needed.

That kind of micromanagement of the executive branch by Congress is just what we don't need.

As the Washington Post wrote in a story about this case, Mercer is not the only U.S. attorney to take an assignment in D.C. while still remaining on board in their home state. In fact, as one Justice Department spokesman said, it is a "longstanding DOJ practice," and as many as 35 federal prosecutors have taken dual appointments in the past 10 months alone.

Critics seems to presuppose that the staff of the U.S. attorney's office in Montana can't do its job without Mercer being here. But that may not be right. From what we know of the office, they could probably use more prosecutors, but second-in-command Kurt Alme is well-equipped to run the office in Mercer's absence. After all, he previously served as director of the Montana Department of Revenue.

And the fact of the matter is that Mercer doesn't even want to be doing two jobs. He was put in this position by his superiors, and yes by the Senate, which is now complaining about him.

What would be good for Montana and good for the country would be if the Senate did its job and voted on Mercer's appointment to be the No. 3 official at Justice. Then he could stop doing two jobs and everyone could get on with their business.

Mercer would either be approved and would resign his Montana job to take the Washington post, or he would be rejected and could return to Billings to take over the office here again.

Why does the matter have to be more complicated than that?