Really Big Surprise: Mukasey: No Prosecutions in Justice Hiring Scandal

12 August 08

Former Justice Department officials will not face prosecution for letting improper political considerations drive hirings of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday.

Yeah, it doesn't surprise me in the least. I was hoping against hope that there would be genuine federal government accountability, professionalism, honesty, ethics and just the basic execution of the duties and responsibilities of the various offices and departments involved. You know, do the kinds of things that they earn their government salaries for. But, no.

Mukasey used his sharpest words yet to criticize the senior leaders who took part in or failed to stop illegal hiring practices during the tenure of his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales.

Ooh, he CRITICIZED them sharply. Damn, that's mighty painful. After having to endure public Congressional testimony, loss of political future, position, power, prestige and just basic employment, these unthinking, close-minded conservative douchebags like Sampson and Goodling are being sharply criticized by the AG. Man, that gots to hurt, huh?

But, [Mukasey] told delegates to the American Bar Association annual meeting, "not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws."

Now, wait a minute here. How does the AG of the United States make a statement like "not every...violation of the law is a crime...?" I'm no lawyer, but if you violate local, municipal, state or federal code, you've violated the law, and therefore you have committed a crime, unwitting or no. It may not be felony aggravated murder, or even a parking ticket, but it's still a violation of the law and therefore a crime.

So, the AG "sharply criticizes" them, but in the next breath turns around and says that they are not criminals. Now, they violated federal law against hiring--that makes these political flacks (possible) criminals. Not charged or tried or convicted--not ever, apparently--but more than likely criminals.

All they did, so says the AG, is violate civil service laws, which really doesn't count, apparently. This serves to stress the importance and inviolability of American civil service law, eh? Thanks, Attorney General, for standing up for the American rule of law.

Other intrusions of Bush administration politics into department hirings and firings remain under investigation. Mukasey said he is awaiting reports on the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 and the hiring practices in the department's civil rights division.

Yeah, I'm sure this investigation will really light a fire, too. More political hyenas cause their damage, further ruin the institutions that make this country great, and then fade away, largely intact.

The political controversies prompted Gonzales' resignation last year.

An internal investigation concluded last month that for nearly two years, top advisers to Gonzales discriminated against applicants for career jobs who weren't Republican or conservative loyalists.

Again, more direct indication of willful violation of federal hiring statutes..."for nearly two years."

The federal government makes a distinction between "career" and "political" appointees, and it's a violation of civil service laws and Justice Department policy to hire career employees on the basis of political affiliation or allegiance.

Again, let's be clear: "it's a violation of civil service laws..." So how does Mukasey square this fact with his statement that they really didn't break the law? Which side is he on, the side of Fact, or the side of political fact?

Yet Monica Goodling, who served as Gonzales' counselor and White House liaison, routinely asked career job applicants about politics, the report concluded.

Mukasey, who once served as a federal judge in New York, said the Justice Department has taken steps under his leadership to prevent a recurrence of the hiring scandal.

Ooh, I'm sure that'll never happen again, now that dozens of politically vetted flacks have been emplaced in the Justice Department, where nothing short of death or drug abuse--or maybe pedophilia or gay-bashing closet homosexuality, given Republicans' most recent choice in scandals--will remove them from office. They've lost the battle, but they've won the war. A couple of neo-con foot soldiers have made the sacrifice in order to place dozens of career Republican hacks into Justice Department positions of influence for decades to come. So, who's really won here?

"I have made repeatedly clear...that it is neither permissible nor acceptable to consider political affiliations in the hiring of career department employees," Mukasey said.

Well, that was the case before all of this came to light. The laws are not new, and senior appointees and advisers can claim no ignorance of this fact. So, when the time to apply the law in the manner for which it was created arrives--NOW--the AG deftly drops back and punts. No need to have a major court case against biased careerist neo-cons winding its way through courts and the media when you're trying to keep the Republican dream alive after 8 disastrous years under Ultra-Yutz George Bush.

If the problems were to recur, Mukasey said he is confident department employees would speak up.

So, now it's on department employees to speak up? The AG again by ommission exonerates the senior personnel who perpetrated these crimes by saying it's on the work force to make it known. The workforce, the same folks who have invested their own decades of life to make it a career, and you're going to go up against a White House liaison political appointee and squeal that she's breaking the law? Where is the accountability that seniors are not allowed to engage in this behavior, ever, and they are primarily responsible to ensure it does not happen? Where's that statement of leadership and purpose, Mukasey?

That did not happen during Gonzales' tenure, he said (because everyone was cowed by the overt and bullying politicization of the Department--duh). Gonzales appeared unaware of the political hiring process outlined by Goodling and his then-chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, the report said.

Well, that's not surprising. Either he was the dumbest Department head ever--most likely--or he manufactured his stupidity to conceal a much darker political agenda. Given his lifetime of silent, pet-like devotion to Bush, it seems the former is much more plausible. He rode the coattails all the way up, and when it came time to perform, he was absolutely lost.

"There was a failure of supervision by senior officials in the department. And there was a failure on the part of some employees to cry foul when they were aware, or should have been aware, of problems," Mukasey said.

Again, it's the fault of the workforce. Two direct mentions of the failing of the workers to make known activity the leaders should not have been engaged in. More blaming the victim, another customary and sadly common conservative tactic.

The ABA has been at odds with the Bush administration on a range of issues, including treatment of prisoners suspected of terrorist ties and the need for a federal law to shield reporters from subpoenas.

Mukasey said that on the issue of politics in his department, there was no disagreement with the lawyers' group.

"Professionalism is alive and well at the Justice Department," he said.

How can the AG make this statement, when he's just said that a determination of legal violation really isn't a crime? How can he make this statement when he says that although it's pretty clear these folks, uh, 'did really bad things,' he's still not going to do his job and prosecute them. I'll bet if I peed on his front lawn, he'd find a law I'd violated and would ensure I was prosecuted.

Some candidates for career Justice Department jobs who were excluded because of politics could be invited to apply for new positions, Mukasey said.

Wow, real charitable. The hacks who got the jobs stay, and you may or may not get the job you were knowingly and illegally excluded from. Really nice, AG, highly professional.

He also ruled out firing or reassigning those who were hired under the now-discarded evaluation process. "Two wrongs do not make a right," he said. "People who were hired in an improper way didn't themselves do anything wrong."

No, they didn't do anything wrong, but they were hired illegally and under circumstances which invalidate their qualifications to hold their positions. The entire process was illegal and therefore is invalid. It's simple: re-compete the positions--every single last one of them--and let the best candidate emerge with the job. Yeah, that's the way it was supposed to be done the first time.