Historians will have a field day trying to rank the failures of the Bush administration. Iraq will likely top the list, but the disgraceful politicization of the Department of Justice has to be in the top 5.
Our justice system isn’t perfect, but it’s still the envy of the world. Keeping politics out of the decision to prosecute is critical to the health of our republic.
Last year, we saw how Alberto Gonzales and the other political hacks appointed by President Bush fired nine United States attorneys for not towing the line. Now more information is coming to light about how hiring practices for the Honors Program and other staff positions were influenced by politcal considerations, which is unlawful.
Justice Department officials over the last six years illegally used “political or ideological” factors to hire new lawyers into an elite recruitment program, tapping law school graduates with conservative credentials over those with liberal-sounding resumes, a new report found Tuesday.
The blistering report, prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general, is the first in what will be a series of investigations growing out of last year’s scandal over the firings of nine United States attorneys. It appeared to confirm for the first time in an official examination many of the allegations from critics who charged that the Justice Department had become overly politicized during the Bush administration.
“Many qualified candidates” were rejected for the department’s honors program because of what was perceived as a liberal bias, the report found. Those practices, the report concluded, “constituted misconduct and also violated the department’s policies and civil service law that prohibit discrimination in hiring based on political or ideological affiliations.”
The shift began in 2002, when advisers to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft restructured the honors program in response to what some officials saw as a liberal tilt in recruiting young lawyers from elite law schools like Harvard and Yale. While the recruitment was once controlled largely by career officials in each section who would review applications, political officials in the department began to assume more control, rejecting candidates with liberal or Democratic affiliations “at a significantly higher rate” than those with Republican or conservative credentials, the report said.
The shift appeared to accelerate in 2006, under then-Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, with two aides on the screening committee — Michael Elston and Esther Slater McDonald — singled out for particular criticism. The blocking of applicants with liberal credentials appeared to be a particular problem in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, which has seen an exodus of career employees in recent years as the department has pursued a more conservative agenda in deciding what types of cases to bring.
It will be interesting to see if Gonzales is directly implicated in this scandal.
The McCain campaign continues to make blunders. McCain’s recent proposal to offer a $300 million prize for new battery technology is another gem from this inept campaign. Obama hits the softball out of the park.
“When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn’t put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win — he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people — not just in the private sector but also in the public sector.”
After running one of the most pathetic presidential campaigns in modern history (he paid $50 for one delegate), Rudy Giuliani is being trotted out as John McCain’s latest attack dog on national security. Here’s an example of why Rudy is so bad. Like McCain, he can’t keep his story straight.
We’re used to hearing brilliant speeches from Obama, and he doesn’t disappoint with today’s Father’s Day speech.
He returned to a familiar theme - the need for fathers to take responsibility for their children. Obama regularly delivers this message, and he makes a point to emphasize this in front of black audiences, as he acknowledges the serious problems in the black community regarding absentee fathers.
It’s a message of personal responsibility that liberals and conservatives can appreciate.
In accepting the Democratic nomination for the open Senate seat in Virginia, Mark Warner made it clear that he will not be in the running for Obama’s VP.
That’s unfortunate, as he would have been a great selection.
John McCain has a long career in the Senate, and he’s taken strong positions on many different issues. His problem, however, is that he can’t seem to remember them. His latest gaffe involves his position on Social Security. Yesterday he denied ever being in favor of private accounts. Of course, that’s not true. He clearly expressed support for privatization back in 2004.
Hillary Clinton was at her best on Saturday in her endorsement of Obama. She had a job to do, and she did it well. In time, many of her supporters will back Obama as they begin to realize that McCain doesn’t share their beliefs.
That said, the Obama team should not, and probably will not, be fooled into putting her on the ticket. She will always have her own agenda, and the minute he offers her the second spot he will no longer have any leverage to control her or her husband.
The only scenario for putting her on the ticket would be some kind of political disaster over the summer that threatens his ability to win this on his own. Barring that, he has many good options for VP, so Clinton supporters should not hold their breath.
“The DNC and the Obama Campaign are unified and working together to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Our presumptive nominee has pledged not to take donations from Washington lobbyists and from today going forward the DNC makes that pledge as well,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. “Senator Obama has promised to change the way things are done in Washington and this step is a sure sign of his commitment. The American people’s priorities will set the agenda in an Obama Administration, not the special interests.”
Bob Barr’s Libertarian presidential campaign is poised to play a serious role in this year’s elections, with early polls showing him taking away enough votes from Sen. John McCain to give Democrats a chance to win states that should be safely Republican.
Polls in Georgia and North Carolina over the last two weeks show Mr. Barr winning 8 percent and 6 percent respectively of the presidential vote, and in both cases helping keep likely Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama within striking distance of Mr. McCain in those states — which, taken together, account for more electoral votes than Florida, Pennsylvania or Ohio.
What a graceless exit. The networks are reporting the Hillary will suspend her campaign and endorse Obama on Friday.
This happened only after some of her strongest supporters implored her to concede. Charlie Rangel was upset and told her so. Her own advisors had to get eight Senators on the phone with her to tell her it was over.
It also appears that she will not be seriously considered for the VP slot, as the Obama team will require that Bill Clinton reveal all the donors to his library and his foundation as part of the vetting process. That is not going to happen, so the drama will soon come to an end.
After her shameful performance last night, she needs to muster a great speech on Friday when she endorses Obama in order to salvage her reputation.
Those around her say that beyond the mundane negotiating points – a half hour in Denver, help raising money – there is a more personal, less tangible demand that she be accorded the respect she feels she earned in an historic bid that brought her closer to the nomination than any other second-place Democratic finisher.
This is so ridiculous. You don’t demand respect, you earn it. With her inability to be gracious in defeat last night, she has lost the respect of many Democrats, including some of her strongest supporters.
Hillary Clinton’s selfish speech last night is not going over well with some of her strongest supporters. Hilary Rosen hoped that Hillary Clinton would make a graceful exit last night, but she was disappointed, and she refuses to be a bargaining chip.
So, I am also so very disappointed at how she has handled this last week. I know she is exhausted and she had pledged to finish the primaries and let every state vote before any final action. But by the time she got on that podium last night, she knew it was over and that she had lost. I am sure I was not alone in privately urging the campaign over the last two weeks to use the moment to take her due, pass the torch and cement her grace. She had an opportunity to soar and unite. She had a chance to surprise her party and the nation after the day-long denials about expecting any concession and send Obama off on the campaign trail of the general election with the best possible platform. I wrote before how she had a chance for her “Al Gore moment.” And if she had done so, the whole country ALL would be talking today about how great she is and give her her due.
Instead she left her supporters empty, Obama’s angry and party leaders trashing her. She said she was stepping back to think about her options. She is waiting to figure out how she would “use” her 18 million voters.
But not my vote. I will enthusiastically support Barack Obama’s campaign. Because I am not a bargaining chip. I am a Democrat.
I have to admit I was completely wrong about Hillary Clinton. I actually believed that when the time was right, she would do the right thing and try to unite the party to defeat John McCain in November. How could I be so foolish.
Her speech tonight was a disgrace. On this historic night, when the Democratic Party nominated the first African-American candidate in history, Hillary Clinton insisted that this was her night, not Obama’s night. She wouldn’t concede. She refused to rally her supporters around Barack Obama now that he has won the nomination.
Hillary Clinton doesn’t have a classy bone in her body. History will judge her harshly for this. Sure, at some point she will properly back Obama, but nobody should forget that she tried to make this historic night all about her.
I hope Obama doesn’t pick her as his running mate. It’s time to put the drama of the Clintons to an end.
It’s very early, and polls don’t matter much until both conventions are completed, but Kos offers an interesting analysis of the state of the electoral college based on polling averages from Pollster.com. So far, Obama looks pretty good. As I stated previously, I expect Obama to start taking a lead once Hillary endorses him and the party starts to come together.
