Why aren't we shocked? Abramoff/Tyco man set to become Deputy AG

[BurtWorm]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_25.php#006645


Timothy Flanigan is set to become Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He is the General Counsel of Tyco, one of the most scandal-plagued corporations in the country. He is directly connected to the Abramoff scandal. As GC at Tyco he hired Abramoff to protect Tyco's ability to avoid paying taxes through its relocation to Bermuda. He was also central to the legal White House decisions permitting quasi-torture to be used by the US military.

Attorney General Al Gonzales will almost certainly have to recuse himself from various aspects of the Abramoff case as it centers more and more on the White House. That leaves Flanigan, who is even more directly implicated in the case. He'll have to recuse himself too, whether he realizes it yet or not.

So, major corporate corruption, implicated in the Abramoff scandal, legal enabler of torture.

Is Al Gonzales really such a politically disinterested figure that he needs a pure party-liner as his number two?

Why is this guy's nomination not dead in the water?