The Bush administration has appointed an extreme political partisan as the new United States attorney for Arkansas. Normally, the Senate would have vetted him, and quite possibly blocked his appointment. But the White House took advantage of a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act, which allows it to do an end run around the Senate.

It is particularly dangerous to put United States attorneys' offices in the hands of political operatives because federal prosecutors have extraordinary power to issue subpoenas and bring criminal charges. The Senate should fix the law and investigate whether such offices in Arkansas and elsewhere are being politicized.

H. E. Bud Cummins, the respected United States attorney in Little Rock , recently left office. He has been replaced on an interim basis by J. Timothy Griffin, who has a thin legal record but a résumé that includes working for Karl Rove and heading up opposition research for the Republican National Committee. Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, wanted to raise concerns about Mr. Griffin's appointment as part of the confirmation process. But he couldn't because there was no confirmation process.

Mr. Pryor, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, have accused the Bush administration of “pushing out U.S. attorneys from across the country under the cloak of secrecy and then appointing indefinite replacements without Senate confirmation.” The San Diego Union-Tribune has reported that San Diego's United States attorney was asked to resign, and that even some of her opponents “said the supposed reasons she is being forced out are perplexing.”

There could be unsavory political reasons for putting a party operative in charge of federal criminal investigations in Little Rock, which has been home to two possible presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and former Gov. Mike Huckabee. But it is not necessary to leap to extravagant conclusions. United States attorneys are so powerful that their impartiality must be beyond question. One way to ensure that is to require them to submit to questions from the Senate, and face a confirmation vote.

Senators Feinstein, Leahy and Pryor have a bill to change the method for selecting interim United States attorneys back to what it once was: the federal district court in the jurisdiction would make the appointment. Congress should pass that bill, and take a hard look at how vacancies are being filled. There might not be fire where the senators see smoke. But Congress should not take any chances.