TPM = Interviewing 101: The Bush Administration Way "Are you a Republican?"

[L. Coyote]

Interviewing 101: The Bush Administration Way
By Paul Kiel - September 5, 2007
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004077.php

If you're bidding for a spot at the Bush Justice Department, you better come ready to field a barrage of questions. And not the variety you might expect. If you're not prepared, you might just leave feeling like you ran into a buzz saw.

Jack Goldsmith, in his new book The Terror Presidency, provides a first hand account of his interview at the White House to be the chief of the Department's Office of Legal Counsel in 2003. The OLC position is among the most important at the Department, since its legal opinions bear directly on government policy. As Goldsmith explains, the OLC has the power to essentially offer "advance pardons" for dubious administration conduct.

So Goldsmith expected to spend the interview talking about his views on the law and the Constitution. Instead, he writes, this is how it began:

Sitting in chairs around Leitch's desk as I entered the room were Gonzales and David Addington. I had met both men briefly before .......

.............

"Why have you never given money to a Republican?" Leitch continued. "Are you a Republican?"

.................

[tanyev]

1. Surely that can't be a legal question for a job interview.

[L. Coyote]

2. Not legally. But,, this is the Bush Administration, so now it is. End of discusion.

And no, we don't answer legal subpoenas either.