Paul Kiel March 28, 2007, 9:35 AM

The Washington Post has a mostly flattering profile of Kyle Sampson in the Style section today. And I just had to laugh at this section in particular:

A devout Mormon born and bred in Utah and educated at Brigham Young University, where he met his wife, Noelle, Sampson coveted the U.S. attorney’s job in Salt Lake City and twice approached the man who still had the job, Paul Warner — now a federal magistrate — to ask him when he’d be stepping down. The first occurred in a conference room in Utah, Warner said, and the second took place during a lunch in Washington on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Though they shared the same home state, Warner and Sampson followed different public service narratives. A former JAG attorney, Warner had spent 17 years in various capacities in the U.S. attorney’s office, saying it “was where I wanted to be, not where I wanted to be from.”

In speaking to the eager Sampson, Warner asked him to slow his motor.

“I let him know he would be helped with practical experience as a prosecutor,” Warner said. “I told him he should spend some time as an assistant U.S. attorney. If you’re going to be chief surgeon, it’s nice to do some surgery.”

Yep, and Sampson’s the guy who was in charge of replacing U.S. attorneys all over the country. Too bad Warner, that relic of a prior age, didn’t understand what being a U.S. attorney is really about.

Kyle Sampson, U.S. Attorneys