Now I see why Verizon Was so bonding with the White House in the

[EV_Ares]

privacy issue of provinding customers phone numbers to the government. The General Counsel of Verizon evidently is a friend of Bush's.

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Mr. Gonzales's friendship with Mr. Bush dates back to when he was the president's lawyer after then-Gov. Bush plucked him from a law firm in Houston.

With less than two years remaining on the clock, finding someone to take the job won't be easy. Some of the top names picked to succeed Mr. Gonzales, including former Attorney General Robert Barr, now general counsel of Verizon Communications Inc., and James Comey, former deputy attorney general and now general counsel at Lockheed Martin Corp., have criticized Mr. Gonzales, which could take them out of the running. The Justice Department's No. 2, Paul J. McNulty, has already announced his plans to leave this summer to seek work in the private sector.

The difficulty of getting potential nominees through confirmation hearings has been affecting decision-making throughout the government. Last week Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he will replace Gen. Peter Pace, who has served two years as the U.S. military's top officer, in part because he wanted to avoid the contentious hearings that would likely accompany the general if he were to seek another term.

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the prosecutor firings, said given the chance, he would vote with Democrats to express his disapproval of Mr. Gonzales. "My own sense is that there is no confidence in the attorney general on this side of the aisle," he said before the vote.


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