Neil MacBride, who has been an associate deputy attorney general at Justice since January, is the leading candidate for U.S. attorney in Alexandria, one of the nation's most prominent law enforcement posts, the Washington Post reported this afternoon.

MacBride was vice president for anti-piracy policy, general counsel and a registered lobbyist in 2007 for the Business Software Alliance, which represents some of the country's largest software and information technology companies. MacBride also worked for Vice President Joe Biden, when Biden was a Democratic senator from Delaware.

MacBride's lobbying background prompted the Post to report that:

"It would be unusual for a recent corporate lobbyist to be a U.S. attorney, and some prosecutors and governmental watchdogs have questioned whether appointing MacBride would run counter to the spirit of the Obama administration's efforts to change the lobbying culture of Washington."

President Obama enacted some of the strictist ethics rules of any president, barring lobbyists from working on policy in his administration that they had lobbied on in the prior two years. He has made exceptions in a few cases when he felt the person's expertise was critically needed, aides have said.