Solicitor General Paul Clement to Resign
Solicitor General Paul D. Clement — who we think is the first solicitor general to really dig alternative rock — will resign on June 2, according to a press release.
Prior to his 2005 confirmation, Clement (Georgetown, Harvard Law) served for over four years as the principal deputy Solicitor General, and during that period served for nearly a year as Acting Solicitor General. Clement’s tenure of over seven years in the Office of the Solicitor General is the longest period of continuous service in that office by an individual who served as Solicitor General since Samuel Phillips, who served from 1872-1885, the press release says.
During his time in the Office of the Solicitor General, Clement argued 49 cases before the Supreme Court, prevailing in many, including Tennessee v. Lane, McConnell v. FEC, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, Gonzales v. Raich, and Gonzales v. Carhart.
According to a WSJ profile of Clement from last year, Clement belonged to the Federalist Society and held clerkships under U.S. Circuit Judge Laurence Silberman and then Justice Scalia. After the 2000 election, former Solicitor General Theodore Olson (now of Gibson Dunn) selected Clement as his deputy. “I wanted a deputy solicitor general made from the mold of John Roberts,” Olson said. Roberts held that job in the first Bush administration. Clement then succeeded Olson when the latter left government in 2004.
“Clement,” wrote the WSJ’s Jess Bravin, “comes across as easygoing and unpretentious. He is doubtless the first solicitor general to frequent Washington’s alternative-rock outpost, the 9:30 Club. (Although he likes the Scottish group Franz Ferdinand, he says his all-time favorite band remains the grunge pioneer, Nirvana.)”
No word yet on Clement’s next move.
FIRST to say GOOD RIDDANCE. Another Bush lackey trying to shove their ideological and socially conservative agendas down our throats. Worst and most corrupt presidential administration since Nixon, and even then, they didn’t pack the govt. with such biased ideologues.
Bye bye Clement. thanks for torturing the commerce clause in the Raich case. And your boy Scalia is a jerk too. Maybe you guys should go start a bald ugly man club and test out new rogaine treatments. Good riddance.
I am deeply offended that this Bush puppet likes my music. His entire philosophy of life and government is antithesis to my entire movement. Him and his conservative friends constantly attack freedom of speech and expression through music (are you listening Ms. Cheney?) and they are trying to inject their conservative social beliefs into our lives. Ironically, a lot of my inspiration came while I was high on reefer, something that Mr. Clement and his boys would love to completely eradicate.
Rage against the machine, my friends. Teen spirit has been dead under Clement, Bush and Cheney. Time to get rid of these guys and start over with this cool cat named Barack.
Notice, in the post made by “Good riddance,” the venom, the hate, and the hyperbole. It’s enough for him that he’s in the Bush Administration. Then the comment about “bald ugly m[e]n.” The “hater” psychology that drives the Lefties to deliver a “critique” like this is more than a little bizarre.
Many more resignations are to occur. If anyone looks upon the FBI update’s items, the Tide is turning against Corruption and cronyism that directly assualts the Constitution and American People.
Director of EOUST resigns, Director of Corp Fraud Task Force resigns,the SEC discontinues the Bankruptcy Fraud Div in Atlanta, Director of SEC resigns, Region 3 Trustee resigns, speciously, after receiving a Criminal Complaint against rogue DOJ personnel, CA DOJ dismantles the Public Corruption Unit and threatens career prosecutors with retaliation. Immediately after that and the resignation of the new Region 3 Trustee, the FBI raids the Office of Special Counsel, all of this would have continued, if one man was still running for President, for it is ALL connected, believe it or not.
Their power center is growing ever more dim and void of impunity to act contrary to the LAW.
Stand up and fight for your American way of life
or
LET IT GO!
http://fraud-corruption-mnat.blogtownhall.com/
When Bush was re-elected, recall how many of his lower hierarchy quit. This common theme was little bandied about in the media at the time, but it said oh so much about the failing Bush administration.
Maybe Clement came to the realization that selling the commoner down the river on behalf of the Bush administration was no way to making a living? Then again, maybe not. Either way, I will not be sending a card written on the back of an amicus.
Lets hope this shining star of the Bush administration goes to work for the United States Chamber of Commerce or one of their law firms. We need talent like this to help us beat back the liberal trial bar out to ruin the American economy.
I see Laser’s back. And so I say, I am not Laser.
Perhaps we could be a bit more restrained and civil in our comments.
We represent ourselves as educated professionals to the public?
Actually, Tort Reform, let’s hope the Republicans don’t steal another election and this black hole of the Bush administration stands light years away from the oval office for decades forward. We need the people to matter again and not have our country run by the Chamber of Commwhores out to fleece America.
I sense much anger in you 5:40. Frustration is not the path to enlightenment. Much to learn you have. Great is the American economy. Short is the memory of the American public. Join our movement to achieve a feeling of completeness and victory. Leave your anger behind. Blinds you it does.
No you don’t sense anger, you sense the truth.
Were it not for a filth-drenched, uber-corrupt administration with a president that is both a traitor to his oath and the American people that put him into office, you and your position of impropriety would be nothing right now.
Fleecing the public is not the America way, it’s America gone awry.
The ad hominem attacks upon my government screwed me and Laser fails to address the issues on a point by point basis. Either the cases do hold water (sorry Vinny) or they do not. As a republican at heart I am ashamed of how things have gone these last few years. It is almost as if the Repub party said, okay, we have gotten ours, now you can get your slice. One tries earnestly to believe that McCain has integrity, at the same time, a change by Obama would be welcome. Regardless, it is blatantly obvious, that all persons from this Administration need to go!
I can’t wait until McCain becomes President and he installs Paul Clement on the Supreme Court. Wherever I am in the world, I will fly back to be there to cheer. General Clement is my hero. If you’ve ever heard him argue, he’d be your hero too.
Paul’s hardly resigning because he’s disgraced or anything like that. The next Term for the Supreme Court starts in October and spans a new (probably Democratic) administration. Clement’s been SG more than long enough, so there’s no need to go through that transition for another 6 months on the job. You leave at the end of the administration to let someone else have the title of SG for a tiny bit — a heady role, even if only for a half year or so. So don’t think this is a sea change or anything other than Paul letting someone else have a brief turn at the helm before a whole new crew comes on.
As much as I disagree with Tort Reform, his yoda-like diatribe was pretty funny. I am beginning to think that even he does not take his own comments seriously, he just likes to get a rise out of us. Not that it matters anyway, the 8 years of tort reform is over, it’s time for 8 years of a Dem congress and a Dem white house restoring integrity and justice to the government.
Unfortunately, Clement did not bail soon enough.
Just this week, he kicked in the teeth ONCE AGAIN the cause of employees laboring under the yoke of compulsory unionism. It happened in a pending U.S. Supreme Court case brought by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation involving Maine state employees ordered to pay union dues or be fired from their jobs.
And Clement did it last year as well in another of our cases, adopting and arguing the wrongheaded position of the AFL-CIO.
With “friends” like Clement, who needs enemies?
For more information, click here: http://www.nrtw.org/blog/bushs-top-lawyer-taking-orders-big-labor
Stefan Gleason
Vice President
National Right to Work
Legal Defense Foundation
Another Federalist Society Bush appointment who is excellent at following orders. Maybe he can get a job at Halliburton or Blackwater, preferably in their Basra legal office.
What good people–left or right–would want to work in public service in the atmosphere shown above. Clement is universally regarded as a brilliant and fair lawyer. However his apparent crime is Bush is president. With the public “hate” going on, no good people will want to serve in office. Let’s give people who have integrity and do a good job a break.
Clement is a brilliant advocate and a class act, and this is acknowledged by folks on both side of the aisle. Those claiming he’s a “bush lackey”/etc. don’t know what they’re talking about.
Clement never met an amicus brief that President Bush did not like. Clement is beyond lackey, he’s pocket.
Say what you will of his politics, but Clement is a brilliant oral advocate. He gave the best oral argument I’ve ever seen. And he actually argued on behalf of the Plaintiff-employee in the CBOCS case this term, which was about race discrimination and retaliation. He’ll be worth all the $$ he gets in the private sector.
I say foremost, I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and I certainly would never just tote any party line just because I was a member of that party (as I believe all politicos and politico-blog-addicted-wannabes do). I care very little about politicians. I would infinitely prefer discussing the merits of who was a better Van Halen front man, David Lee or Sammy, than I would discussing Hillary vs Barack vs John. All that said, I went to law school with Paul, drank beer with him and played basketball with him and have remained distant friends with him. I certainly know how absolutely brilliant he is and what a mesmerizing speaker he is (having failed miserably in friendly debates with him at law school). But the most striking thing about Paul is that he is one of the nicest, sincerest, most generous people I have had the privilege to know (as is his wife). You can discuss, praise and / or condemn anyone for almost anything (and thus the explosion of boring, trite and utterly predictable blog sites), including their personal positions on government, the economy and society. And you can certainly do that with someone so dedicated to public service like Paul. But knowing him personally and caring almost not at all on his positions on these matters (but caring that he actually lists Nirvana as his favorite band — egad!), I assert, you cannot condemn or criticize his character. Best wishes in the future to an outstanding man!
I think I am about to puke. I think all the people he screwed on behalf of the Bush’s would vehemently disagree. Actually, I know they would. To me he seems to have sold Americans down the river to make happy times with his master puppet jerker.
MOAR!
Clement is a schmuck and I say this based upon my 9 years of experience working at DOJ. He provided me with one of my worst moments at DOJ. At the retirement of a 50+ year career lawyer, Clement focused his speech on her achievements by reference to what he was doing (ie: not born when she passed the bar). The speech was an appalling act of vanity and narcissism. And to Jeff, you don’t need to worry about harsh comments preventing people from accepting political positions — the economic benefits of even a brief political stint far outweigh the discomfort of barbs from the likes of Laser Haas. I think, however, we need to seriously consider the impact that idiots like Bush, Gonzales, and yes, Clement, have on the aareer ranks, who do the real work of DOJ.
