Captain Of A Sinking Ship?

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez needs help pumping the water from his sinking ship. So he has turned to Kevin O'Connor, boy wonder of the Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office. Today O'Connor was named Gonzalez's chief of staff.

It must be true that blondes have all the fun. The sandy-haired Notre Dame graduate has heads shaking in Connecticut. How has he gone so far after having done so little?

O'Connor was named U.S. Attorney by George Bush in 2002, after a largely lackluster and do-nothing decade in the law in which he wandered from one big firm to another in search of a mission. The Resume Of A Peripatetic Climber  His office in Connecticut has been busy in recent years, indiciting a series of politicians for public corruption. Just last year, he was given a half-time assignment in Washington as deputy to Gonzalez. He kept his job as U.S. Attorney, splitting his time between Washington and Connecticut.

Other than occasional press conferences and ubiquitous press releases, insiders in the U.S. Attorney's Office are hard-pressed to say just what he has accomplished. He has enjoyed the good fortune of leading an office requiring no leadership. The career prosecutors in his office are excellent.

Oh, he is said to be a good manager. But the first thing I want to know when a client calls is who is prosecuting. There are federal prosecutors in Connecticut whose names cause me to murmer: "This will be a tough fight," I say on such occasions. But my prayers have never been answered as to Mr. O'Connor: No one has ever called and said he was the prosecutor. That would cause me too much glee.

Gonzalez is sinking fast. Perhaps he can hitch his boat to O'Connor's star. If not, we can perhaps to see O'Connor sitting in Gonzalez's office soon. That would only be fitting with O'Connor's inexplicable good fortune.