FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS - There may be no end in sight to the U.S. attorney's limbo in Southern Illinois, with the White House apparently finding no luck hiring someone for a short-term job.

And Southern Illinois isn't alone. Of 93 U.S. attorney offices in the nation, 23 - almost 25 percent - are headed by people in an acting or interim capacity.

The office based in Fairview Heights is headed by acting U.S. Attorney Randy Massey. Facing a Thursday deadline, the White House intends to invoke a recently passed law and extend Massey's tenure for an additional 120 days, according to congressional sources.

The Justice Department acknowledged that the White House must act by Saturday, but disputed that a decision had been made to keep Massey in the job.

"That's an option, but I'm not going to speculate as to what we're going to do," said Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

A year ago, the Bush administration nominated Phillip J. Green, a federal prosecutor in Michigan, to the job. His Senate confirmation stalled during an internal investigation into charges of misconduct.

The job was offered recently to someone on a permanent basis, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, said last week. But the attorney turned down the White House because only 19 months remain in the Bush administration. Shimkus declined to identify the prospective nominee.

The administration's lame-duck status may not be the only reason it's having a hard time finding nominees. The White House has also been enduring a lingering scandal over the firing of U.S. attorneys.

Illinois' southern district sticks out because of ongoing turmoil: Since 2001, the district has had seven U.S. attorneys. Among them were Ed McNally, who stunned law enforcement colleagues by testifying on behalf of former Gov. George Ryan in Ryan's corruption trial; and Miriam Miquelon, who resigned her interim position in 2003 while under Justice Department investigation. Southern Illinois has not had a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney since November 2005.

Like other Illinoisans in Congress, Shimkus is losing patience.

"It shows a real failure of the system, and what's unfortunate is that it really hurts the office because there's no consistency," he said.

Shimkus said he understood why people might be reluctant to make the career choice to take the job. "It's worse than Congress. They would only get a year and a half; we at least have two."

Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., noted that he had made recommendations to Bush more than a year ago, as is customary for the senior member of the congressional delegation of the president's party.

"I don't know why they haven't acted by now. They should have," said Hastert, who was House speaker when he provided a list of prospective nominees.

The White House declined to comment.

New legislation

Under provisions of the Patriot Act that expired this year, the White House had succeeded in keeping U.S. attorneys in an acting capacity in what critics interpreted as an effort to inject politics into the system.

The expiration of the act left acting U.S. attorneys subject to a previous law requiring their replacement after 210 days which, in Massey's case, ends July 7.

New legislation signed June 15 allows the attorney general to name an acting U.S. attorney for a term of 120 days. If a Senate-confirmed nominee were not in place after that time, the chief federal judge in the district would select the U.S. attorney.

Massey, 53, could be the first named in an acting capacity under the new law. He declined to comment.

The Justice Department's Roehrkasse acknowledged that 23 openings exceeds the vacancies of recent years but said that interim U.S. attorneys "are perfectly capable of effectively running the office while we work to identify nominees."

He added: "There are a number of individuals who choose to come and go for a variety of reasons, to leave government for a variety of reasons."

A Bid expires

One of Hastert's recommendations was Green, a graduate of St. Louis University School of Law and Southern Illinois University. The Senate Judiciary Committee did not act on Green's nomination by the end of the last Congress, so the nomination expired and the White House did not renominate him.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a Judiciary Committee member, asked the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility to look into three anonymous allegations of misconduct against Green that apparently had come from an adversary in the U.S. attorney's office in western Michigan.

The Justice Department found no misconduct in two of the allegations. In a third, stemming from a case involving a reduced sentence in a drug conviction, the investigation found no misconduct but concluded that Green had "exercised poor judgment" and had violated a Justice Department regulation, according to a letter in March from the Justice Department to Durbin.

Green said last week that "the only thing I was criticized for was not consulting the Department of Justice before making a decision not to appeal, and I accept that criticism. I'm at least gratified that in my entire professional career, the worst thing I've ever done is fail to consult the department before making a decision."

He added: "It's unfortunate that the nomination got bogged down in partisan politics. I believe that the people of Southern Illinois and the assistant U.S. attorneys there deserve better."

Durbin said at the time that Justice Department findings on Green were "cause for concern" and told the administration that he hoped someone else would be nominated.

In a recent meeting with Bush, Durbin brought up the protracted vacancy in Southern Illinois, an aide to Durbin said.

Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker said last week that Durbin believes that Massey is competent but added, "Illinois' southern district still doesn't have a nominee, let alone a confirmed nominee."