Just want to clear something up about this little phrase because it keeps getting used, abused, and is clearly misunderstood.
When it is said that a federal attorney "serves at the pleasure of the president" what is really meant by that is when a new president comes in if you were serving the previous president, the new president has the option to can your ass.
It's not a phrase meant to indicate that the president can just go around randomly firing federal attorneys...yeah, a lawyer might say you can interpret it that way because that's what lawyers do but the fact remains that's not what it is intended to mean. A US Attorney is part of the justice system and once a sitting president signs off on a new attorney or set of attorneys it's generally thought that person will hold the position throughout that presidents term. Willy nilly firing of attorneys would be a complete manipulation and destruction of the justice system.
The Bush administration discussed firing all 93 at the start of his second term as a way to purge the few they felt were bad apples (ones that were prosecuting Republicans) without it seeming odd that they were getting rid of the little group they wanted to can. Carol Lam being at the top of the list. Lam who successfully prosecuted the biggest case of corruption in the history of the US Congress...she won, put Randy Cunningham away...you'd think this would mean that she'd be like prosecutor of the year, decade, or even century because it was the BIGGEST CASE IN HISTORY...but nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!...she nailed a Republican took her investigation all the way back to Washington, the CIA, Lewis, MZM, etc, etc...so bye Carol!!!
This is not what was meant by "serving at the pleasure of the president", Lam was a Republican, they put her there and in the middle of an investigation that led to more Republicans being in deep poop...GET OUT CAROL!
Clinton sacking them all was normal, what Bush did may have only happened about 3 times in the last 100 years...the two things don't compare and that phrase does not apply.
