Given the onslaught of criticism the Justice Department has sustained for replacing a few federal prosecutors, it will be illuminating to see how Attorney General Gonzales fills the vacancy expected to arise in Brooklyn. The current U.S. attorney, Roslynn Mauskopf, has been in the running for a judgeship since last year, when President Bush nominated her to U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. On Wednesday, she was in Washington for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is possible Ms. Mauskopf, who served as Governor Pataki’s inspector general, will be approved by the committee and will come before the Senate for a vote shortly.

It is also possible that Senator Schumer will hold her nomination hostage as he tries to exert some influence over who will be nominated to two of the latest vacancies on the bench. Those vacancies arose from the death last month of Judge Richard Casey of U.S. District Court in Manhattan and from a decision by Judge Edward Korman of the federal District Court in Brooklyn to take senior status in the coming months.

The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn — formally, the Eastern District of New York, as opposed to the Southern District, which covers Manhattan and the Bronx — is a job of vital importance for this city. In recent years, the federal prosecutors at Cadman Plaza have been bringing increasingly high-profile terrorism cases. The presence of Kennedy airport within the office’s jurisdiction means that the federal prosecutor in Brooklyn plays a vital role in preventing the smuggling of contraband into America.

Ms. Mauskopf has had notable successes in the last year. In January her prosecutors obtained a death sentence for the murderer of two police officers. Last April they secured a guilty verdict against a young clerk in an Islamic bookstore who plotted to blow up the subway station at Herald Square. Although Ms. Mauskopf’s shepherd in politics, Governor Pataki, no longer has the influence he once had, we expect Ms. Mauskopf to be confirmed to the bench. There is nothing to indicate that she will not make a fine judge.

Without a fellow Republican in the governor’s mansion — or any other statewide office — for the first time since Mr. Bush became president, it is unclear to whom he will turn for advice when it comes to filling this position and the forthcoming judicial vacancies on the federal bench in New York. There certainly are fine prosecutors among the assistant U.S. attorneys in the Brooklyn office. Ms. Mauskopf’s two ranking lieutenants, Greg Andres and John “Jack” Smith, are both well-regarded and successful prosecutors. Or Mr. Gonzales might look to the ranks of the Justice Department. The most important thing is to find someone who both shares the president’s priorities and is committed, competent, and honest.