Illegal Influence At Justice
A Justice Department report has concluded that politics illegally
influenced the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges.
The report puts much of the blame on top aides to former Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales, especially the department's former White
House liaison, Monica Goodling.
Goodling is reported to have violated federal law and Justice
Department policy by discriminating against job applicants who
weren't Republican or conservative loyalists.
Goodling acknowledged in May 2007 before the House Committee on the
Judiciary that she "took political considerations into account in
assessing candidates for career positions in the department," the
report said.
July 28, 2008
The 140-page report does not say whether Goodling and others will face
any charges. None of those involved in the discriminatory hiring still
work at Justice.
The report ends a yearlong investigation by Justice's Office of
Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility into whether
Republican politics were driving hiring polices at the nation's premier
law enforcement agency.
Goodling resigned her position in April 2007. Gonzales resigned in
August 2007 after months of scrutiny and investigations into the hiring
practices at Justice.
At the time, President George W. Bush blamed politics for Gonzales'
predicament.
"Al Gonzales is a man of integrity, decency and principle," Bush said.
"After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction
at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position
and I accept his decision. It's sad that we live in a time when a
talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from
doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud
for political reasons."
The McCain campaign is playing fast and loose with the truth.
In a new attack ad, the McCain campaign claims that Barack Obama
canceled a stop to visit wounded troops at a military base in
Germany because he couldn't bring cameras inside.
That's not what happened. The Obama campaign scrapped the troop
visit after the Pentagon told them it would be viewed as a campaign
event. As MSNBC noted:
The plan was to go with his military aide, retired General Scott
Gration. The Pentagon said Gration was off-limits because he had
joined the campaign-- violating rules that it not be a political
stop.
Obama had gone to see wounded troops in Iraq earlier in the week,
without even confirming he'd been there. No press, no pictures. He
has done the same when he goes to Walter Reed -- never any press.
Essentially, the Bush Administration intervened to block Obama's
planned visit and now the McCain campaign is criticizing Obama for
it. Isn't that ironic?
McCain's new ad claims that "McCain is always there for our troops."
Except when he's not. McCain recently opposed (and then skipped the
vote on) a 21st century GI Bill for our men and women in uniform. It
wasn't an isolated incident.
"[McCain] has demonstrated a tendency to work against veterans'
interests, voting time after time against funding and in favor of
privatizing services--in other words, of rolling back the VA's
improvements by supporting some of the same policies that wrecked
Walter Reed," Brian Butler wrote in The Nation in June. As Butler
notes:
During a March 2005 Senate budget debate, McCain voted to kill an
amendment that would have "increase[d] veterans medical care by $2.8
billion in 2006." That amendment lacked an assured funding stream,
but lest one mistake this incident for a maverick's stance against
budget-busting, there's more. Just a year later McCain voted against
an amendment that would have "increase[d] Veterans medical services
funding by $1.5 billion in FY 2007 to be paid for by closing
corporate tax loopholes.
McCain has displayed courage under fire, but he's no longer the
champion for the troops he claims to be.
