Pledging not to alter the traditional focuses of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Paul Fishman, already in office for two months, was formally sworn in this afternoon as the state's top federal prosecutor in a star studded ceremony that included both of the state's U.S. senators, its incoming and outgoing governors, the U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

"Even with terrorism and national security as our number one priority, and even with new critical areas like health care fraud and mortgage fraud, I can assure you that my commitment and the commitment of the office on other traditional things on which we focus will not flag, and we will not relent," said Fishman in his address, after he was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., a Hamilton native who served as the state's U.S. Attorney from 1987 to 1990.   

Fishman, a 52-year-old Montclair resident, will oversee a staff of about 140 in the office where he built his career and which he was almost tapped to lead 10 years ago. 

"Today the truth is, that I have achieved something that has been a huge ambition and longing of mine to be the United States Attorney for this district," he said.

Fishman started at the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1983 --  a year after graduating from Harvard Law, where he edited the Harvard Law Review- and worked his way up to become First Assistant U.S. Attorney under then-U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoff.  In 1994, he move to Washington to work as an advisor to then-Attorney General Janet Reno, before starting a private practice as a white collar defense attorney in 1997. 

Two years later, Fishman was U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg's (D-Cliffside Park) choice to lead the office after then-U.S. Attorney Faith Hochberg was tapped to become a U.S. District Court judge.  But then-U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli's choice, Robert Cleary, won out. 

Fishman's decade long wait to get to the position was the subject of a couple jokes at the jocular ceremony, in which Fishman's closest colleagues joked about everything from Fishman's slow confirmation process, to Fishman's fondness for Yogi Berra (he's a trustee at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center), to his diminutive stature. 

"You can also say he's not afraid to be around people who are taller than he is," said former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Jamie Gorelick. 

Fishman himself called his almost-nomination to the job ten years ago "the elephant in the room" and joked that Lautenberg came back from retirement in 2002 to make sure that he ultimately got the job.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito will return to New Jersey on Monday to administer the formal oath of office to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.  Fishman has been the state's federal prosecutor since October 14; this is his formal investiture.  Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff will also attend; Alito and Chertoff are former U.S. Attorneys for New Jersey.  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will speak; U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez are on the program as speakers, and plan to attend as long as the Senate is not voting that afternoon.  Also attending: Gov. Jon Corzine and Gov.-elect Christopher Christie, who was U.S. Attorney from 2002 to 2008.

Michael Chertoff, who was New Jersey's U.S. Attorney in the 1990's, says it's a stretch to accuse Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra of trying to help Chris Christie's campaign for governor. The Record's Herb Jackson asked the former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security about reports that the Justice Department was investigating Marra's comments:

Q: Did Marra cross a line with his comments?

Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff generally stays away from the political realm, but he made an exception today to praise newly minted lieutenant governor candidate Kim Guadagno.

Guadagno's time working as an assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey overlapped with Chertoff's leadership of the office in the early 1990s. 

“I generally stay out of political commentary, but I will tell you that she was an outstanding public servant and prosecutor.  She worked on some really high profile and significant cases.  Great judgment, lots of integrity and very smart,” he said in a phone interview with PolitickerNJ.com.

Chertoff served as a U.S. Appeals Court Judge and as Assistant U.S. Attorney General before President Bush appointed him to head the Department of Homeland Security in 2005.  The Union County native now practices law in Washington.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson has been granted cabinet level status in Barack Obama’s administration – as Christie Whitman when George W. Bush was President.  But the EPA is not a cabinet level department and Jackson will lack some of the legal duties of a cabinet member.  Jackson is not in the line of presidential succession and would not have a vote if the cabinet discussed invoking the 25th amendment. The last New Jerseyan in the line of succession was Michael Chertoff, who was 18th during his tenure as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.  Click here to view a list of New Jerseyans who have served in the President’s cabinet.

President Bush made some last minute appointments that included three New Jerseyans: U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and GOP fundraiser Cheryl Halpern were appointed to five-year terms on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. And the general manager of the New York Mets, Omar Minaya, was named to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Lisa Jackson, Barack Obama's choice to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, becomes the 18th New Jerseyan to serve in the President's cabinet since James Madison picked Samuel Southard to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Navy.  Jackson also becomes the first African American from New Jersey to serve in the cabinet.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SLIDESHOW OF NEW JERSEYANS IN THE CABINET

On the day Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff came back to his hometown to address students at Kean University in the waning days of his term of service with the Bush administration, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights) took a moment to access his legacy.

“We were fortunate to have a person of Secretary Chertoff's abilities and level of commitment serving our country,” said Andrews said in a statement. “He served well at a difficult time.”

In his speech at Kean, the Union County-born secretary expressed frustration with the traditional committee system in Congress.

UNION – Talk to people in New Jersey’s legal profession and no one denies that what Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff perhaps lacks in charisma or courtroom presence, he compensates for with something more fundamental:  profound powers of reason. 

“Going back 20 years, he was a great lawyer, a brilliant lawyer – hard but fair,” said attorney Ted Wells.

His friends in the New Jersey political world say Chertoff’s a creature of hard analysis not politics.  “This is one of the brilliant legal minds of the country,” said Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), who introduced Chertoff today at Kean University, where the Homeland Security Secretary and author of the USA Patriot Act reflected on his three-year term in the Bush administration.

His tenure included his grim mea culpa in front of Congress following what he acknowledged was his department’s 2005 failure to respond effectively to Hurricane Katrina. 

But Katrina didn’t come up today as a cross-section of audience members in friendly fashion mostly picked the Elizabeth native’s brain about general public policy during the question and answer portion of his presentation.