Career Justice VIP Tells How Bu$hCo Treated DOJ

Joseph D. Rich shares an opinion piece in the LA Times yesterday that was labeled, presumably by the paper, "Bush's long history of tilting Justice : The administration began skewing federal law enforcement before the current U.S. attorney scandal, says a former Department of Justice lawyer". Segments of the writing of this former DOJ Civil Rights Division include:

THE SCANDAL unfolding around the firing of eight U.S. attorneys compels the conclusion that the Bush administration has rewarded loyalty over all else. ...

Regardless of the administration, the political appointees had respect for the experience and judgment of longtime civil servants. ...

Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections. ...

From 2001 to 2006, no voting discrimination cases were brought on behalf of African American or Native American voters. U.S. attorneys were told instead to give priority to voter fraud cases, which, when coupled with the strong support for voter ID laws, indicated an intent to depress voter turnout in minority and poor communities. ...

This pattern also extended to hiring. In March 2006, Bradley Schlozman was appointed interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo. Two weeks earlier, the administration was granted the authority to make such indefinite appointments without Senate confirmation. That was too bad: A Senate hearing might have uncovered Schlozman's central role in politicizing the civil rights division during his three-year tenure.

Schlozman, for instance, was part of the team of political appointees that approved then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's plan to redraw congressional districts in Texas, which in 2004 increased the number of Republicans elected to the House. Similarly, Schlozman was acting assistant attorney general in charge of the division when the Justice Department OKd a Georgia law requiring voters to show photo IDs at the polls. These decisions went against the recommendations of career staff, who asserted that such rulings discriminated against minority voters. The warnings were prescient: Both proposals were struck down by federal courts.

Schlozman continued to influence elections as an interim U.S. attorney. Missouri had one of the closest Senate races in the country last November, and a week before the election, Schlozman brought four voter fraud indictments against members of an organization representing poor and minority people. This blatantly contradicted the department's long-standing policy to wait until after an election to bring such indictments because a federal criminal investigation might affect the outcome of the vote. The timing of the Missouri indictments could not have made the administration's aims more transparent. ...

Outright hostility to career employees who disagreed with the political appointees was evident early on. Seven career managers were removed in the civil rights division. I personally was ordered to change performance evaluations of several attorneys under my supervision. I was told to include critical comments about those whose recommendations ran counter to the political will of the administration and to improve evaluations of those who were politically favored.

Morale plummeted, resulting in an alarming exodus of career attorneys. In the last two years, 55% to 60% of attorneys in the voting section have transferred to other departments or left the Justice Department entirely.

At the same time, career staff were nearly cut out of the process of hiring lawyers. Control of hiring went to political appointees, so an applicant's fidelity to GOP interests replaced civil rights experience as the most important factor in hiring decisions.

The lefty blogosphere seems generally convinced that "voter fraud" was the, or at least a primary, angle Rove was working in his effort to create a permanent majority GOP. Getting away with this effort required plenty of loyal Bushies at Justice. Even The Politico, hardly a bunch of smelly bloggers, with the reporting of Jeanne Cummings from back on the 27th, recognizes this seemingly undeniable motivation bringing us to the foundation of today's scandals. Then again, the simple "faith" of so many (like John Ashcroft as Dubyah's first AG) of the Bu$hCo "Christian Soldiers" could have had been a large reason for this disaster of a White House. Peace ... or War!