Something we knew all along...

Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson broke the law when they played politics in the hiring of career Justice Department attorneys You remember Tanya Harding Monica Goodling, the wingnut lawschool graduate who only hired staunch republicans, dedicated movement conservatives and wingnut religious freaks for career positions during her term as White House liason at the Justice Department.

Today's report singles out Goodling specifically for violating federal law and Justice Department policy by discriminating against job applicants who weren't good republicans and loyal bushies. While it doesn't suggest the two will face criminal charges, investigators did suggest that Goodling will at least lose her license to practice law - so there goes her hopes for a partnership with the whack-job Phelps daughter.


The hapless former AG, Alberto Gonzales, was found to be largely unaware of the illegal political litmus test two of his most trusted aides were applying when it came to hiring was largely unaware of the hiring decisions by two of his most trusted aides. Decisions made by those two aides weeded out Democrats and anyone perceived to be the least bit liberal. Goodling also rejected at least one lesbian job applicant.

Michael Mukasey, the man who replaced Gonzalez when he finally stepped down after a surreally stubborn summer of insisting he wouldn't go, made the obligatory remarks about being appalled, "I have said many times, both to members of the public and to department employees, it is neither permissible nor acceptable to consider political affiliations in the hiring of career department employees, and I have acted, and will continue to act, to ensure that my words are translated into reality so that the conduct described in this report does not occur again at the department."

Okay. But remember that I'm from Missouri. Don't tell me. Show me. Review every fucking one of the hires that these two placed in jobs by these clowns and determine if they are really suitable to the position. Applying and passing a political litmus test ought to imply a quid pro quo and that ought to reduce or eliminate the job protections enjoyed by most federal employees.

This is serious business. The Department of Justice is the department that can least stand to be politicized. Every person who finds him- or herself before the bar of justice should have confidence that they will receive a fair trial, and that their politics won't enter into it. It is antithetical to Justice that they destroyed that confidence when they turned Justice into "Just Us."

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An open letter to my congressional delegation...

I have emailed the following letter to my Congressman and Senators demanding the impeachment of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. I encourage you to do the same. If you don't have time to write your own letter, use this one, just cut out the second, third and fourth paragraphs. Unless you live in Kansas City, of course.

Dear Senators Bond & McCaskill; and Congressman Cleaver;

The time has come to take decisive action to restore justice to the Department of Justice and impeach the Attorney General. He has sullied the office and disgraced the department. He has failed to realize that the AG is not the President’s lawyer, but is instead the people’s lawyer. If the surgeon general politicizes the post, innocent people do not go to prison. Justice politicized is not just, and when Justice is not just, our Republic is in grave peril.

I take this all very personally. I live in Kansas City, and I have been paying attention since Todd Graves got his first headline. I watched in horror as Schlozman abused the office. I had my first hissy-fit about the lack of confirmation and Patriot Act abuses when he blew into town unconfirmed and reeking of Rove. (By the way, in the future read the bills that you are voting on when my civil liberties are at stake! That's what I pay you for. Claire, you of course get a pass here, you were not in the Senate yet.)

I further believe that charges were filed by USA Schlozman in an attempt to influence Missouri elections. Specifically, I believe that the electoral process was manipulated in an attempt to retain the Class I seat Senator McCaskill won in November for the Republican incumbent; and I believe that there is reason to investigate the charges filed against Kathryn Shields before the mayoral primary.

Senator Bond, your cousin is in the position now. I have hope that things in the Kansas City office will improve under his leadership.

But the fact remains that what has happened to the Department of Justice under Alberto Gonzales is an utter apostasy and an affront to the Constitution and the rule of law. Those things mean something to me, and I hope they do to you as well.

On Monday we learned that the Attorney General abdicated his responsibility and delegated unprecedented authority over staffing decisions to two aides, Mr. Sampson and Ms. Goodling. Every day there is a new outrage. The more we learn, the more outrageous Mr. Gonzales stubbornly clinging to his post appears. The Resident stubbornly insisting Mr. Gonzales has his full faith and confidence quite frankly crosses the line from absurd to disturbing.

Enough already. The fecklessness, mendacity and perfidy are manifest, and the incompetence is staggering in scope. We, the People, simply can no longer abide it, and the time is nigh for the impeachment of the Attorney General. If he will not resign, and the President will not ask for his resignation, then Congress must intervene and remove him from his post.

Congressman, I encourage you to introduce Articles of Impeachment against Alberto Gonzales today. And Senators, I hope that you will vote to convict when the case comes before the Senate.

Respectfully;

All congressional contact information is available on the sidebar. Please use it.

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Political Prisoner

A federal appeals court Thursday ordered Georgia Thompson, former state purchasing supervisor for the state of Wisconsin be immediately freed from prison. The order to release her immediately was extraordinary in and of itself. Usually such actions take weeks, if not months.

The three-judge panel in Chicago acted with unusual speed, ruling after oral arguments by Thompson's attorney and the U.S. attorney's office.

During 26 minutes of oral arguments, all three judges assailed the government's case, with Judge Diane Wood saying at one point that "the evidence is beyond thin."

During a news conference later Thursday, Doyle, a former state attorney general, said the three judges did an "extraordinary thing" by entering an order finding Thompson innocent and ordering her immediate release.

Decisions at that level of the federal judicial system usually take weeks or months after oral arguments.

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle said Ms. Thompson had been tried and imprisoned for doindg her job. I would go farther and say that she was imprisoned for doing her job in a Democratic administration.

Now - my question is...How many more Georgia Thompson's are out there, wasting away in prison cells, or wending their way through the legal system at great expense because charges were brought by U.S. Attorneys against members of Democratic administrations in a craven effort to influence elections by charging Democrats with non-existent crimes?

A few days ago I asked about the U.S. Attorneys who did play ball and kept their jobs - well now we have a window into why they stayed employed. Given what we know now, I would say it's pretty obvious that they were willing to prosecute people and destroy lives for purely political reasons.

How very Soviet of them.

I wonder if those who wanted to tune this whole fiasco out because they don't care if some prosecutors got fired care now?

[Hat tip to our colleague Corpus Juris for staying on top of this issue and bringing this specific instance to my attention.]

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