What changes should be made to ensure that the Attorney General's office remains independent from interference within the executive branch?
As a follow on, in the past, particularly with the example cited by Truman regarding myself and Oakvale, the "responsible" President served as the check on the Attorney General. However, if we are to put some barriers between the President and the Attorney General, what measures should be taken to maintain the accountability of the Attorney General? Senate Removal?
Lastly, a big concern that existed previously was that the Attorney was also a regional executive. Would you support restricting regional executives from serving in the position, since historically, aside from criminal trials, cases involving regional actions tend to dominate Attorney General activity?
My instinct is that we need to hit a sweet spot between having an AG free from any outside control (as they can't be held back), and one too chained to outside authority and pressure.
As such, if the Senate was to make the AG substantially freer from executive authority, it would have to place the checks and balances elsewhere. And abuse of authority and irresponsibility can come from any single place, or more than one at the same time. The Senate itself (a majority of the Senate), a President, an AG too powerful and strong to be dismissed from the position by any normal means, to name just a few.
I would consider any potential bans on any category of regional officeholder from the position carefully, as it might just be the best man for the job is a regional executive and a future Administration might find a shortage of people willing to fill it. But the recent events have also shown an irresponsible regional executive and AG can abuse the hell out of the powers of both positions in tandem. There's certainly at least some merit to the idea. A part of my brain is bringing up a devils advocate argument though: I don't know how much we want to be responding to the past crisis when the next crisis could manifest itself very differently, and separating authority doesn't do much when two men are kindred spirits willing to work together, or one man might be willing to work as the puppet of another.
All in all though, this is starting to enter quibble territory and as you said, regional activity is significant here. This is not some kind of radical step at all, and we're probably not losing too much...maybe. There's a lot to think about, that much is clear. All facets should be considered and weighed and the Senate should consider reform proposals, because there are very probably some that could make our Republic more secure in the median scenario (which is what should be the guiding baseline).