Wow, you no doubt saw the weird editorial today from the Union-Tribune postulating that attorney (and sometimes voiceofsandiego.org columnist/blogger) Pat Shea might, maybe, perhaps, be considered, maybe, to replace U.S. Attorney Carol Lam.
Of course, the editorial had absolutely no substantial evidence of this.
I talked to Pat this morning, he said he has no idea how U-T editorial page editor Bob Kittle got all of that from their brief telephone call yesterday.
I’ll pass along his comments in a second, but first, here’s Kittle and the editorial board:
Unsurprisingly, the first name to surface as the Justice Department’s potential replacement for purged U.S. Attorney Carol Lam is that of Pat Shea, a La Jolla lawyer and one-time mayoral candidate who was a classmate of George W. Bush at Harvard Business School. Shea says he and the president remain in regular contact with each other and he voices keen interest in the job of U.S. attorney, but says he hasn’t had direct talks with anyone at the Justice Department “yet.”
Shea said Kittle never asked him whether he, personally, was interested in being U.S. attorney. And Shea sent out this statement this morning:
With thanks for the compliment, it is not a job I seek and have no expectation of being appointed.
In the classic words of yore, “if nominated, I will not run, if elected I will not serve.”
But let’s break down the U-T’s bizarre speculation.
The editorial board writes: “The first name to surface as the Justice Department’s potential replacement for Carol Lam is that of Pat Shea…”
Really, according to whom? The ed board doesn’t even cite an anonymous source. It has no source. It just pulled it out of its collective backside.
Shea said he told Kittle he was interested in how the replacement for Lam might be chosen. Kittle asked him if he was going to call the president about this issue and Shea said he told him no.
At no point did Kittle ask Shea if he would be interested in serving as the U.S. attorney, Shea said.
Shea joked that there might be a few federal jobs he’d like to have but U.S. attorney is not one of them.
Very bizarre.