Last week, President Bush nominated attorney Granta Nakayma to be Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance at the Environmental Protection Agency. Now some environmentalists are crying foul because Nakayama works at a law firm that actually represented corporations. The worst allegation is that, since his firm, Kirkland & Ellis, represents W.R. Grace, and Grace has been subject to EPA enforcement, Nakayama will be unable to aggressively enforce environmental laws. But Kirkland is representing W.R. Grace in bankruptcy proceedings and Nakayama has never been involved with the case. It is disingenuous to attribute all of the work of Nakayama's entire law firm -- a firm with several hundred attorneys -- to Nakayama. Moreover, while at EPA Nakayama will be recused from matters relating to his work at Kirkland.

It seems that the only way not to be "tainted" in some folks' eyes is to never have worked in the private sector, particularly as a private attorney with paying clients. I know some greens would like to see every position at EPA filled with NRDC attorneys and lifetime government employees, but that's not going to happen in a Republican administration.

[Disclosure: I've worked for/with Kirkland & Ellis on matters with Nakayama, and he co-taught a class I took in law school.]