"Justice"

The Department of What?

By Rick Horowitz

You'll want to check out page 48.

You may think you know what it was about, and how bad it got. But you need to read page 48 -- and page 49, too -- to really see the operation in all its cynical splendor.

You'll wonder how they could keep a straight face, the Monica Goodlings and the Kyle Sampsons -- patrolling the hallways, keeping the non-believers at bay -- when people kept calling it the Department of Justice. More like the Department of Just Us.

And page 48 is a fine place to start.

"An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring by Monica Goodling and Other Staff in the Office of the Attorney General" -- that's the ungainly title attached to the entire report, the latest product of a year-long internal investigation.

[See for yourself: www.usdoj.gov/opr/goodling072408.pdf]

But things are much simpler on page 48. On page 48, there's a job applicant referred to simply as "Candidate #1."

It was September of 2006, and Candidate #1 was applying for a position as a "detailee" to work on counterterrorism issues. Applicants were required to have counterterrorism-prosecution experience, the announcement had said, and five years of criminal-prosecution experience was preferred.

So let's look at what the report found Candidate #1 brought to the table.

The candidate had been an [Assistant United States Attorney] since 1987. He was an experienced terrorism prosecutor and had successfully prosecuted a high-profile terrorism case for which he received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service. He had also litigated several other terrorism cases and prosecuted major criminal cases. The candidate also served as chief of the anti-terrorism unit in his [United States Attorneys' Office], working with two joint terrorism task forces containing multiple agencies and agents, and he had communicated frequently with senior Department leadership with responsibility for terrorism issues.

Impressive? The people looking to fill the job thought so, too. In fact, the report points out, they considered Candidate #1 "head and shoulders above the other candidates who had applied for the counterterrorism detail." In fact, they considered him "one of the leading terrorism prosecutors in the country and a very talented attorney."

A done deal, yes? Think again.

Candidate #1 had a problem. Or rather, Monica Goodling had a problem with Candidate #1. It seems that Candidate #1's wife was active in local Democratic Party politics, while the candidate himself was "at times a registered Independent and at other times a registered Democrat." So:

Notwithstanding the candidate's outstanding qualifications and...senior management's desire to hire him, Goodling refused to approve the detail.

Instead, the job went to someone who had been an Assistant U.S. Attorney for only two years. Who had no counterterrorism experience. Who had less than five years of criminal-prosecution experience. Who, four different senior staffers concluded, was "not qualified for the position."

He was, however, a registered Republican.

Good enough for Goodling.

Good enough for you? This was counterterrorism, for pity's sake! This was supposed to be something that mattered to this bunch. Instead, it turned out to be just another patronage slot to fill. Quality? Who needs it? What matters is loyalty.

Then you remember that they did the very same thing in Iraq, in the critical weeks and months right after the invasion. This is the bunch, you remember, that gave vital reconstruction slots to hacks and well-connected novices, to up-and-coming GOPers who knew nothing about reconstruction, but knew all too well what a dash of overseas experience could do for their resumes. (And didn't that go swimmingly!)

Page 48, you'll have to admit, is all part of the pattern.

Just another sordid corner of Bushville.

Posted 7/29/08. Tell your friends about "Rick's"!

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker.

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