U. S. Attorney General list is narrowed to five. My pick? Larry Thompson.

The list for a new replacement for Alberto "Gonzo shuffle" Gonzales as U. S. Attorney General has been settled on. Here are the five finalists:

— Michael Mukasey was suggested by Democrats as well as Republicans during the search process. He was Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York until he rejoined the New York City law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP as a partner in September 2006. Earlier, he was Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the Southern District of New York, where he was chief of the Official Corruption Unit. He spent 18 years on the bench, six of them as chief judge. Known as "Judge Mukasey," he is a member of Rudy Giuliani's Justice Advisory Committee -- and probably a pick of Rudy's, with one exception: he doesn't get to pick!

— Theodore B. (Ted) Olson, known as one of the nation's premier Supreme Court lawyers, was solicitor general under President Bush from June 2001 to July 2004. Under President Ronald Reagan, Olson was Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1981 to 1984. He rankles Democrats because he successfully represented George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the Supreme Court for Bush v. Gore cases that decided the 2000 presidential election. Olson is now a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Washington office. He is a member of the President's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, created at the suggestion of the 9/11 commission. Olson is chairman of Rudy Giuliani's Justice Advisory Committee -- and probably a pick of Rudy's, with one exception: he doesn't get to pick.


— Laurence H. Silberman, a senior circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 and took senior status in 2000. He was co-chairman (with former Senator Charles S. Robb) of the WMD commission created by President Bush in 2004. Silberman has a varied career that includes being a partner in law firms in Honolulu and Washington, D.C., and a banker in San Francisco. He was a U.S. Army private for a year beginning in 1957, was an appellate-division attorney at the National Labor Relations Board, was solicitor of Labor from1969-1970, undersecretary of Labor from 1970-1973, deputy attorney general from 1974-1975 and Ambassador to Yugoslavia from1975-1977. He is now the Distinguished Visitor from the Judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center.

— George J. Terwilliger, a partner at White & Case in Washington, was Deputy Attorney General, the second-ranking official at Justice, under President George H.W. Bush, from 1991-93. He served briefly as Acting Attorney General of the United States. He was United States Attorney in Vermont from 1986 to 1991, a connection that could help him with Sen. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Terwilliger was senior counsel to Gov. George W. Bush's presidential campaign on the Florida recount cases-- probably a favorite to easily win confirmation, but NOT my pick.

— Larry D. Thompson (see WIKI and picture on the right), who is PepsiCo's Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, General Counsel and Secretary, would be the nation's first African-American attorney general. He was Deputy Attorney General to John Ashcroft from May 2001 to August 2003, and remains popular in the Justice Department. He has noted in speeches that he was the first African-American to serve as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, a position he held from 1982 to 1986. Thompson is a member of Rudy Giuliani's Justice Advisory Committee. He was a possibility to succeed Ashcroft (the slot went to Gonzales), and has been mentioned as a potential Supreme Court nominee. And the WINNER in my book is LARRY THOMPSON!