Today, we learned that former AG Alberto Gonzalez managed to extend his toxic grasp much farther into the career ranks of the Justice Department than previously understood. In yet another stunning scandal, probably not the last one, Gonzalez has been found responsible for tainting the inner workings of our federal criminal justice system with the full-scale implementation of a conservative political agenda. His conduct started at the very bottom with new interns and attorneys, and it ranged almost all the way up to the top, through the firing of a number of loyal, Republican U.S. Attorneys.
What may be even more stunning is that the scathing report was conducted by the Justice Department itself. Current AG Michael Mukasey has already gone on record indicating he will adopt each and every recommendation. The report determined that politics had improperly controlled the screening process for hiring new attorneys and new summer interns. DOJ found that it disregarded the law, as well as its own professional guidelines and rules, instead using political criteria to screen potential candidates for DOJ jobs.
[W]e found that in 2006 the Screening Committee inappropriately used political and ideological considerations to deselect many candidates. We determined that a disproportionate number of the deselected Honors Program and SLIP candidates had liberal affiliations as compared to the candidates with conservative affiliations. This pattern was also apparent when we examined the data for membership in the liberal American Constitution Society compared to the conservative Federalist Society for SLIP candidates and when we compared applicants with Democratic Party affiliations versus Republican Party affiliations for both Honors Program and SLIP candidates. The disproportionate pattern was also apparent when we examined candidates who were highly qualified academically. This is very troubling on several levels. First, from the very inception of our federal criminal justice system, federal prosecutors have been always been open to the general accusation of prosecuting political foes or for purely political purposes. We heard it most recently in the Geoffrey Fieger trial, and more distantly in the U.S. Attorney firings scandal of last year. Up until Bush took over, most of these kinds of accusations have not been true, and when they have been, have usually been relegated to the status of isolated instances. Up until this report came out, judges, juries, and civil and defense attorneys had all operated under the assumption that DOJ follows its own rules, eliminating politics from the decision-making process of its career prosecutors.
Now, however, nobody can say with a straight face that any particular prosecution is devoid of a political element, as the very individual prosecutors making the decisions and exercising their judgment (ranging from the original investigation to whether to prosecute to whether to bargain a plea) were selected primarily on the basis of their ideology. Those associated with liberal groups and thinking were screened out, and only those with a demonstrated link to conservative ideology were hired.
Second, it can't be undone. Our taxpayer funded system of prosecuting federal criminals is now staffed by substantial numbers of people hired for their personal politics rather than for their ability, professional qualifications, and suitability for the job. As the report points out, highly qualified candidates, some more qualified than those actually hired, were screened out at the initial phases due to the impression that they might incline toward a liberal ideal rather than a conservative one.
Third, it taints those who were hired. Every single hire made in the last several years represents a hire tainted by politics. Every one of these attorneys must now wonder if they got the job due to their ideology rather than their qualifications. More importantly, all those that deal with recently hired federal prosecutors now have a basis for calling into question their motives, as their very presence in the ranks of federal prosecutors identifies them with an ideology rather than with objectivity, impartiality and fairness.
We may not know for decades how badly Bush and his cronies have shaken the very foundations of our democratic form of government, poisoning every conceivable bastion of objectivity, fairness and impartiality with the taint of politics. One thing is clear: our country will never be the same, and our own Department of Justice will never again enjoy the respect and credibility it once was known for.
The New York Times story is here. |
I got an anonymous heads up from a loyal reader that SatanFest might be more than a figment of the imagination.
