Tom Davis, a moderate Republican from Virginia, has emerged as a leading candidate for the Obama Administration's newly created position of cybersecurity czar. Sources familiar with the White House's deliberations on the subject say Obama officials feel a Washington power player would make a better candidate than a tech guru. "They want someone who understands technology issues, but more importantly, knows how to get things done in Washington," says a cybersecurity expert who has been consulted by the White House. "There are very few people who have that combination of skills, and Davis is at the top of that short list."

The question is, why another Republican, and why this one?  Marcy Wheeler weighs in:

More troubling, to me, is the role Davis played in thwarting Democratic investigations of Bush's chronic problems with emails. Remember, both the investigation of the use of RNC emails among Bush appointees and the investigation of the missing emails went through the Oversight Committee. And, in his role as then-ranking member, Davis did what he could to stymie that investigation. Last year, for example, Davis helped the White House make sure Steven McDevitt--the guy who first discovered the extent of the missing emails--could not testify before the Oversight Committee. Davis repeatedly suggested that pushing to get the RNC emails would be an improper infringement on the RNC's political freedom. Most interesting, perhaps, Davis used his position to demand emails that might reflect an investigation into his own role while RNCC head.  

All of this might be considered a natural role for Davis to have played while Ranking Member of a committee investigating his party's funny business with email. Or, given the way that Davis repeatedly intervened during hearings to assist the Bush Administration with legal problems, it might have been complicit cooperation in a cover-up.  

But whatever it is--do we really want a guy with a history of politicizing email to be in charge of our nation's internet security?

So...I think we need to pay particular attention to who the US Attorney nominees are - when the nominations are made - and which ones are being considered for holdover (other than Pat Fitzgerald, whom we already know about and have a fair amount of familiarity with).