Thread by @jedshug

Some suggest Whitaker's appointment as AG is unprecedented. It is illegal, but unfortunately there's a long history of appointing partisan hacks, cronies, and corrupt insiders as AG, with disastrous results.
It's for structural reform. My draft paper: 1/ shugerblog.com/2018/11/10/cro…

2/ *It’s time for structural reform.
I address @walterdellinger’s claim: “Dellinger said there was no precedent for installing a political crony as attorney general at the very moment that he could decide the fate of a federal investigation involving the president.”
Not exactly.

3/ My paper suggests that this is not correct, depending on a broad interpretation of a "very moment." First, Nixon appointed Richard Kleindienst as AG after the Watergate break-in was already being investigated and prosecuted. Kleindienst himself was a crook inside the DOJ...

4/ JFK appointed his brother RFK, who had become famous for prosecuting organized crime... but never investigated Joe Sr.'s organized crime past from Prohibition. (Reagan had his crony Meese during Iran Contra, but Reagan had appointed him before the conspiracy was exposed.)

5/ Let's review the history of crony/hack/partisan AGs and their corruption and disastrous results throughout American history.
The first was the infamous Roger Taney, Jackson's AG who later wrote the vile Dred Scott decision. Jackson appointed Taney in the wake of scandal...

6/ The Petticoat Affair (or Eaton Affair) of 1831 was a salacious scandal over petty palace intrigue, leading to the resignation of all cabinet members except the Postmaster (Lol) . In wake of such upheaval, Jackson turned to a "Kitchen Cabinet" of insiders, including AG Taney.

7/ Fascinating historical trivia: The Petticoat Affair is the origin of the term "Kitchen Cabinet": Jackson getting rid of the political establishment and turning to his own insiders. And that led to America's first crony Attorney General, the awful Taney. #twitterstorians

8/ Taney was a notably bad AG. In an advisory opinion for Jackson, Taney concluded the Constitution didn't apply to free blacks - a preview of his Dred Scott opinion. Then he fought Jackson's Bank War, while the rest of the cabinet opposed it. Cronyism paid off for Jackson.

9/ For the next 80 years, crony AGs were rare.
Surprisingly, the Progressive Era, known for its anti-corruption, anti-cronyism, was the turning point towards cronyism for AGs. Woodrow Wilson named his party hack A. Mitchell Palmer, infamous for the Red Scare Palmer Raids 1919-20.

10/ Palmer, his Red Scare raids, and his mass detentions of Russians reflected a growing reason for political and crony Attorneys General:
The DOJ's power over immigration and deportation.
Palmer wanted to use fear and xenophobia to launch his presidential campaign for 1920.

11/ Question for other legal historians/immigration historians: the states first enforced immigration, then Commerce, but when did the DOJ start to have a role? Any part of Chinese Exclusion? Were the 1920s a turning point? @marthasjones_ @GilmoreGlenda #maengai @cmrodriguez95

12/ The crony path to AG escalated in 1920s with a new norm: Presidents putting their campaign managers as AG. Harding appointed Harry Daugherty, who promptly was entangled in one of America's biggest corruption scandals: Teapot Dome. Despite this disaster...

13/ Harding and Daugherty (one of the worst Pres/AG combos in U.S. history) started a terrible trend = appointing the campaign manager as Attorney General.
Eisenhower appointed Brownell.
JFK appointed RFK.
Nixon appointed Mitchell.
FDR, Truman, and Reagan appointed similar AGs.