Worst idea I've heard this month

Larry Kudlow, writing on NRO's The Corner (and reprinted on his own blog, or perhaps vice versa):

Here’s my humble suggestion: [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales ought to be replaced by an eminent law school dean or college president — someone with enormous credibility and respect.

Whether or not Gonzales ought to go, saints preserve us from someone chosen as Gonzales' replacement because he or she is an "eminent law school dean or college president." I'm assuming that Mr. Kudlow meant to restrict his suggestion to college presidents who also have law degrees. Let's further presume that he meant to restrict his suggestion to law school deans and college presidents who are also conservative, Republican, or (preferably) both — although that gets us into a pretty small circle on the national Venn diagram. And I'm not saying that there are no law school deans or college presidents who might make a decent Attorney General. (The one who springs immediately to mind is Ken Starr — and good luck trying to get him through the Senate confirmation hearings!)

I'm just saying that ivy-covered ivory towers are just about the very last places that I would choose to start looking for someone to hold simultaneous roles as (a) the nation's top law enforcement official and (b) top lawyer for the government of the United States.

How about someone instead who's earned "enormous credibility and respect" through his or her experience in, oh, say, law enforcement or the practice of law? How about someone who's regularly lived and worked in the real world, outside of government or academics?

The solution to the Administration's public relations problems is not a new Attorney General whose experience in crisis management comes from presiding over faculty senate meetings or resolving arguments over tenure.

(The second-worst idea I've heard this month also comes from The Corner, specifically Ramesh Ponnuru's suggestion yesterday on this same topic: "I just want it to be somebody the president has never met." <snark>Yeah, that's a terrific criterion to use for choosing members of the president's cabinet. Let's get a total stranger! Let's find a new AG in the mold of, say, Bobby Kennedy!</snark> Seriously, I respect him a lot, but Mr. Ponnuru's comment is the kind of snide Bush-bashing I'd expect to see on dKos.)