Have The North Dakota Democrats Finally Picked A US Attorney?

I’ve posted several times before about the behind-the-scenes food fight going on among North Dakota Democrats over who is to replace popular (and now resigned) US Attorney (and, full disclosure, frequent guest host for my radio show) Drew Wrigley. As Democrat sources have laid it out for me in the past, the fight has been over an affirmative action choice (Jan Morley, who would be the first female and Indian US Attorney for North Dakota) and a political insider choice (trial lawyer and John Edwards backer Tim Purdon).
A source tells me today that after weeks of in-fighting, Democrats have finally chosen Purdon over Morley. Morley was Senator Byron Dorgan’s choice. Purdon apparently ended up with the support of Senator Kent Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy.
The only question now is, if a choice has been made why haven’t they announced the pick yet?
I have a couple of thoughts. One is that Purdon could possibly be waiting for the class action lawsuit over Fargo traffic tickets. Purdon is one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, and he and/or his firm stands to make a couple of hundred thousand dollars off of the case. Meaning Purdon wants to cash in before he goes to work for the federal government.
The other is the Obama administration’s notoriously slow vetting process and Purdon’s close ties to the now thoroughly disgraced John Edwards. It has been revealed that Edwards had his mistress in North Dakota during his campaign visits here. Purdon was a heavy backer of Edwards (and is the instigator of a pipeline of trial lawyer money that flows into the state Democrat party from out of state), and so his connections to Edwards’ affairs and scandals – however tenuous – may be giving the Obama administration some heartburn.
Especially considering the number of problems Obama has had with appointee scandals to date.