Political Appointees No Longer to Pick Justice Interns

[maddezmom]

Source: Washington Post

By Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 28, 2007; Page A02

The Justice Department is removing political appointees from the hiring process for rookie lawyers and summer interns, amid allegations that the Bush administration had rigged the programs in favor of candidates with connections to conservative or Republican groups, according to documents and officials.

The decision, outlined in an internal memo distributed Thursday, returns control of the Attorney General's Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program to career lawyers in the department after four years during which political appointees directed the process.

The changes come as the Justice Department is scrutinized for its hiring and firing practices because of the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. Some of the fired prosecutors were removed because they were not considered "loyal Bushies" by senior Justice and White House officials.

Justice officials said the change was prompted by a contentious staff meeting in early December, which included complaints that political appointees led by Michael J. Elston, chief of staff for Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, had rejected an unusually large number of applicants during the most recent hiring period. Last year, about 400 applicants were interviewed for the honors program -- the primary path to a Justice Department job for new lawyers -- down from more than 600 the year before.

The House and Senate Judiciary committees also are investigating allegations from an anonymous group of Justice employees that most of those cut from the application lists had worked for Democrats or liberal causes and that Elston removed people for spurious reasons that included "inappropriate information about them on the Internet."





Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702190.html

[Erika]

1. Pat Robertson's Regent U?

The theocratic institution of uber conservatives with little credence may no longer receive top appointments?

Does it scare anyone else that W chose to throw out the separation of religion and state, and put these unqualified people in?

[rumpel]

2. added to ERDaily

thanks

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x471542

[DeSwiss]

3. KnR!!!

[truthisfreedom]

4. "Everything is political."

Rove should have found a real job when he was in college, and stayed out of politics. He's single-handedly destroyed both the free world and the rest of it... I personally blame the state of global warming on that motherf*cker.

[rzemanfl]

5. What possible difference will it make now that everyone they

will be working for is a "loyal Bushie?"

[annabanana]

10. That was my thought too. .

"returns control of the Attorney General's Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program to career lawyers in the department"

I guess it would depend on how long those "career lawyers" had been in the department. . .

[Joanne98]

14. That's what I was thinking...

[diane in sf]

22. The reason there have been complaints is that some real lawyers are still

working there

[cyberpj]

21. Agreed. nt

[formercia]

6. Ave Maria University was a favorite

http://www.naples.avemaria.edu/index.asp

It's run by Opus Dei.

[Demeter]

7. Another Good Reason Why GOP Should Die

If Congress had been doing its oversight job in the first place, we wouldn't be falling into last place in the world.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. Giving "cash rewards" for supporting minority discrimination?!!

My God! That is the larger story within a story here.

from page 2 - I hope this doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

According to a former deputy chief in the civil rights division, one honors hire was a University of Mississippi law school graduate who had been a clerk for U.S. District Judge Charles W. Pickering Sr. about the time the judge's nomination by President Bush to a federal appeals court provoked opposition by congressional Democrats, who contended that Pickering was hostile to civil rights.

A few months after he arrived, that lawyer was given a cash award by the department, after he was the only member of a four-person team in the civil rights division who sided with a Georgia voter-identification law that was later struck down by the courts as discriminatory to minorities, according to two former Justice lawyers.

So you get bonuses for pushing certain views? Aren't there words to describe that? The article makes it sound like quid pro quo.

[maddezmom]

9. that should be a post on it's own

these people are beyond contempt :mad:

[formercia]

11. Been going on for a long time

This is how the boys give their friends a boost. I watched one insider get a $10,000 bonus while other people that worked on the same project and came up with the justification for the bonus get nothing. They argue that government salaries can't attract qualified people and the bonus programs are a way of retaining 'talent'.

Talent my ass.

[Maeve]

13. What, kissing up to those in power isn't a talent?

It's the only "talent" some of these boobs have! Knowing how to :puffpiece:

[formercia]

20. Not talent, just a lack of gag reflex. n/t

[Robbien]

12. There is story after story out there of how the DoJ has killed civil rights dept

By doing things such as what this article is saying, and worse.

There have been no cases litigating civil rights in the last four years. It is dead as far as the GOP is concerned.

[maddezmom]

15. here's a link: Civil rights hiring shifted in Bush era

Civil rights hiring shifted in Bush era
Conservative leanings stressed
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/07/23/civil_rights_hiring_shifted_in_bush_era/?page=1

[krkaufman]

17. Wow, excellent catch.

I'm having a hard time seeing how the political filtering of hires is illegal (though I don't doubt that it broke with past practice/tradition, and is unethical and dangerous); however, that award/bonus sure does seem to reek of a payoff or kickback.

That needs to be highlighted over on TPM.

[rzemanfl]

18. Ah, but it is, discrimination because of political affilation is illegal

in federal hiring. It is a crime. There is a post somewhere on DU that gives letter and verse. I will look for it.

[Hugin]

19. The hiring practices in the whole Executive Branch are being 'reinvented' in the same mold...

That's what this whole 'pay-for-performance' crap is all about.

[krkaufman]

27. I forwarded your observation over to TPM ...

... and whether or not it was the catalyst, TPM now has a post highlighting that cash award.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/013886.php

[krkaufman]

16. I only pray that more government employees will become emboldened ...

... as the Democrats continue to conduct oversight, giving the employees hope that their coming forward will produce tangible results.

[formercia]

23. I hope it turns out better than Poppy encouraging the Shiites

to revolt against Saddam. We know how that turned out.

[krkaufman]

26. Howl! Excellent analogy. Thanks.

[cal04]

24. Josh Marshall

To follow up on the post below about the Attorney General Awards, DOJ's highest honor, I couldn't help but notice that one of the recipients of last year's Attorney General Award for Fraud Prevention was Robert E. Coughlin, II.

Coughlin was the chief of staff to the head of DOJ's criminal division until his quiet resignation earlier this month, first reported yesterday, allegedly because he is facing scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff investigation.

The award "recognizes exceptional dedication and effort to prevent, investigate, and prosecute fraud and white collar crimes." Coughlin was part of a team honored for its work on post-Hurricane Katrina fraud.

In September, Coughlin was honored for his work on fraud and white collar crime. By the following April, he was out because of his alleged connections to the one of the largest white collar crime investigations in DOJ's history. Only in the Gonzales Justice Department.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

25. here - a GREAT inside look at the Civil Rights Division with more info on the cash award winner

Story is not that long - please read

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002989.php

Inside The Bush DoJ's Purge of The Civil Rights Division
By Paul Kiel - April 17, 2007, 3:41 PM

According to Moore, his supervisor and the political appointees in the section consistently criticized his work because it didn't jibe with their pre-drawn conclusions. That was bad enough, he said, but the real trouble came after he and three colleagues recommended opposing a Georgia voter I.D. law pushed by Republicans. After the recommendation, which clashed with the views of Moore's superiors, they reprimanded him for not adequately analyzing the evidence and accused him of mistreating his Republican colleague, with whom he'd had frequent disagreements. But it got worse. Moore said that his Republican superiors even monitored his emails, eventually filing a complaint against him with the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility for allegedly disclosing privileged information in one email (he was cleared of wrongdoing). Fed up, and worried that it was too dangerous to his professional future to remain there, he left.

"Mr. Moore's allegations about political interference in the Civil Rights Division surrounding the Georgia memo, are very much in line with what we are learning daily about this Justice Department," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) told TPMmuckraker. Nadler is the chairman of a House Judiciary subcommittee that held a hearing on the voting section last month. "A clear picture is developing of a department culture that seems to encourage politically-motivated, improper and lawless activity."

skip
( note- Tanner mentioned is the Voting Section chief)


In the private meeting, Moore said that Tanner criticized him for his performance -- for not adequately analyzing the evidence -- and for his behavior. "I was accused of mistreating the Republican-hired attorney, because I criticized some of the things he said and did," Moore told me, adding that there had been frequent disagreements between the lawyer, Joshua Rogers, and the others on the team. "He was just out of law school and had only been in the section a few months. He was saying things and writing things in his memos that we believed were incorrect... We had some very sharp disagreements with him."

Moore said that instead of meeting with Tanner like the others, Rogers was "called over to main Justice and commended for his work on the case." Rogers, a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, is still with the section.