As we just discussed here, the extraordinary resume of Michael Chertoff, Covington & Burling’s newest D.C. partner, includes the following:
- graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School
- clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Jr.
- served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the SDNY under Rudolph Giuliani
- served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey
- headed the Justice Department’s criminal division
- served as a federal appellate court judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
I’m going to call it right now and say that Chertoff has the most impressive resume of any lawyer currently in private practice. Disagree? Provide us with your worthy challengers in the comments below!
To take Chertoff down a notch, he is also the guy responsible for making you take your shoes off at the airport, throw away your water and toss your shampoo bottle if it is 3 ounces or more.
Since airport magnetometers do not reliably detect bomb components in shoes (see Richard Reid, would-be shoe bomber) or liquid explosives (see Trans-Atlantic bombing plot and Operation Bojinka–plot to blow up planes using nitroclycerin smuggled in contact lens fluid containers), you should be thanking Chertoff instead of taking him down a notch.
I second Donald Simpson. You should be thankful that your safety only requires such small sacrifices, unlike those Mr. Chertoff — and much moreso the men and women in uniform — have made to preserve that safety.