Eric Lichtblau has once again nailed the story -- another crucial batch of evidence that should do some serious harm to "senior officials in the Bush administration." An internal investigation at Justice shows that Alfredo Gonzales did, indeed, break the law.
"Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke the law by using politics to guide their hiring decisions for a wide range of important department positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility and independence, an internal report concluded Monday.
"The report, prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general and its internal ethics office, singles out for particular criticism Monica Goodling, a young lawyer from the Republican National Committee who rose quickly through the ranks of the department to become a top aide to Mr. Gonzales. "
The report is even more revealing than the earlier report from Inspector General Glenn Fine. According to Lichtblau, it "goes much further ... in documenting pervasive evidence of political hiring for some of the department’s most senior career, apolitical positions, including immigration judges and assistant United States attorneys."
Michael Mukasey (who doesn't deserve the AG title anymore than Gonzales did) is "disturbed." I bet. These really are not nice people. One is tempted to say they are not good Americans, but we are, evidently, stuck in this nation with a whole bunch of really awful Constitution-masticating pod people who carry US passports and look not unlike our neighbors. A sample of their thinking:
"Ms. Goodling blocked the hiring of an experienced prosecutor for a senior counter-terrorism position because his wife was active in Democratic politics. The candidate was regarded as 'head and shoulders above the other candidates' in the view of officials in the executive office of United States attorneys, but they were forced to take a candidate with much less experience because he was deemed acceptable to Ms. Goodling.
"In forwarding a résumé in 2006 from a lawyer who was working for the Federalist Society, Ms. Goodling sent an e-mail message to the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Steven Bradbury, saying: 'Am attaching a résumé for a young, conservative female lawyer.'
"Ms. Goodling interviewed the woman herself for possible positions and wrote in her notes such phrases as 'pro-God in public life,' and 'pro-marriage, anti-civil union.' She was eventually hired as a career prosecutor.
"Ms. Goodling also conducted extensive searches on the Internet to glean the political or ideological leanings of candidates for career positions, the report found. She and other Justice Department supervisors would look for key phrases like 'abortion,' 'homosexual,' 'guns,' or 'Florida re-count' to get information on a candidate’s political leanings."
Steven Aftergood, at Secrecy News, has more about the Justice Department and its relationship with Homeland Security. And while you're over there, don't miss the post about the effort to order declassification of FISA court opinions.
"In response to a motion filed by the ACLU last year, Judge John D. Bates of the FIS Court acknowledged... that the Court had issued several 'legally significant decisions that remain classified.'"
Same pod people are at work over there at FISA.
