Harkin outlines criteria for U.S. attorney candidates

Sen. Tom Harkin

Interviews for the individuals being considered for the two U.S. attorney posts in Iowa are complete, according to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, and his office hopes to make its recommendations to the White House soon.

“I completed the interview process this past weekend,” Harkin said Thursday during a conference call with members of the press. “We are now going through the files and very soon — maybe even yet this week, I hope, if not early next week — I will be forwarding some names to the White House counsel.”

Harkin, a Democrat who has represented Iowa in the Senate since 1985, indicated his pleasure with the overall quality of the candidates for the positions but did not mention any names. There is, however, at least one woman among the finalists, the senator said. Roxanne Conlin, who served from 1977 to 1981 in the southern district of Iowa, is the first and only woman to be confirmed and serve as a U.S. attorney in Iowa.

Harkin said that he looked for individuals that would not only be diligent prosecutors but who would “work diligently to help change our system” so that there isn’t extreme prosecution of “the little guy” and that alternatives to prison are considered.

“Our prison population is being overwhelmed by [this problem],” Harkin explained. “A lot of the people in the prisons are there for non-violent crimes — such as drug offenses. But we aren’t doing anything for rehab.”

Harkin noted work and research conducted by the sheriff’s offices in Polk, Woodbury and Story counties has shown that methamphetamine abusers can be rehabilitated and re-enter society.

“It seems to me that we need to look for prosecutors who are willing to consider other avenues such as that,” he said. “I want prosecutors who want to get violent criminals off the streets. I want to see them go after those who are pushing and manufacturing drugs, not just the drug users. Go after those people who are making the big money in drugs, not just the low-level users of them.”

Harkin summarized that he was looking for a prosecutor who had a “good sense of justice.”

“I think right now the stature of the Department of Justice is not very high,” he said, “because of [John] Ashcroft and [Alberto] Gonzales and all of that mess — the ideological thrust of it,” he said, referring to two attorneys general from the Bush administration. “We need to again raise public support for the Department of Justice by making it more professional and non-ideological.”

Iowa’s two U.S. attorney’s offices are currently served by Matt Dummermuth in the northern district and Matt Whitaker in the southern district. Both were nominated by then-President George W. Bush, although Dummermuth has never been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Dummermuth’s nomination and subsequent appointment to his current post came after the 2005 re-authorization of the USA Patriot Act. The legislation allowed the president — through the office of the attorney general — to replace U.S. attorneys who had retired or resigned with appointees that could serve indefinitely without undergoing senatorial oversight. The loophole was closed in June 2007 when that portion of the legislation was rescinded, but Dummermuth was one of several U.S. attorneys already serving in an indefinite interim role.

Whitaker was confirmed by the Senate in June 2004.