All part of the grand plan. All part of the plan.

All part of God's plan...

All part of the war on knowledge

Worst Administration Ever.

It's not a war on science - it's a war on democracy. They hate it. They really do.

POLITICIZING THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
At the same time, career staff were nearly cut out of the process of hiring lawyers. Control of hiring went to political appointees

Kevin, what a misleading title. It's the JOB of the political appointees to make policy. The career staff simply follows the orders of the political appointees. That's the way it has always been. Elections have consequences and the if the career staff can't handle those consequences, they should leave the government.

Can anyone name an agency which hasn't been subjected to the Brownie treatment?

Hasn't turned over wholesale to industry lobbyists?

DOJ was no different than any other executive branch function in the estimation of these guys. Just another cog in the great grinding gears of permanent one party rule.

They're looking around in genuine befuddlement...like...what's the problem?

'Certainly, if their only example is the previous, do-nothing Republican Congress, they would naturally think that the only duties of the peoples' representatives are to hang a nice picture of George W. Bush in their office, stare adoringly at it each day and rubber stamp every idiotic thing the president does.' - Bob Geiger

Click the link THX-1138. This is absolutely not "the way things have always been.

All part of the plan

pubilus at Obsidian Wings agrees, and points out what a truly reprehensible plan it is.

There's your Bush Administration, you apologists. Shame on you.

Nathan Thurm (American Hawk):
Time's running out on this administration and its incompetents, thieves and liars. All your silly commentary can't stop it or even slow it down.

This demonstrates the bankruptcy of the conservative agenda. Since only a minority embrace their ideas, so they have to resort to tricks and lies in their attempts to retain control.

I suspect there's a great deal of info left to be discovered, and this story's not going away for a long, long time.

How long til we hear "are we getting sick of the USA story" from the punditocracy?

This appears to be an egregious corruption of the Department of Justice on the part of the Republicans. They have sullied the best traditions of the Department and turned it into a biased instrument of Republican electoral strategy.

This is a further indication of the fundamental rot in the Republican party. It is no longer a party that has faith in American democracy, or faith even in itself. It feels it has to cheat and skew the system in order to stay in power, because it knows that the party views with contempt the interests of America and of Americans. Instead, the Republican party stands only for the interests of the Republican party, and all of its members who want to get their hands in the pockets of the American taxpayers. It is now basically driven by incompetents who can't make it in a fair marketplace -- either the economic marketplace or the marketplace of ideas -- so they constantly have to resort to cheating, lies, and to welfare from the public purse.

The Republican Party of the United States: Lowering American Standards since 1994.

Could maybe Leahy's committee call some of these folks to testify? I know we hear about this stuff on the blogs, but there's no way the MSM will give out a peep on it unless the Dems push it forward.

No one has an excuse to be surprised how the Bush MisAdmin turned out - he hired a Machiavellian (non-crypto) freak like Rove to be his attack pig.

…it's a war on democracy…craigie at 12:27 PM

…On every front, the Bush administration has ushered in vast expansions of federal power -- often in the form of radical and new executive powers, unprecedented surveillance of American citizens, and increased intervention in every aspect of Americans' private lives. To say that the Bush movement is hostile to the limited-government ends traditionally associated (accurately or not) with the storied Goldwater/Reagan ideology is a gross understatement.

But none of this expansion of government power has been undertaken in order to promote ends traditionally associated with liberalism either -- none of it is about creating social safety nets or addressing growing wealth disparities or regulating business. Instead, federal power is enlisted, and endlessly expanded, in service of an agenda of aggressive militarism abroad, liberty-infringement domestically, and an overarching sense of moralistic certitude and exceptionalism. This movement is neither "liberal" nor "conservative" as those terms are understood in their abstract form, but instead, is radical in its attempt to fundamentally re-define the American government and the functions it serves….

Getting a bit tired of hearing that politics was suddenly invented in 2001.

For decades prior to this administration, the Justice Department had successfully kept politics out of its law enforcement decisions.

I would really like to see some objective evidence for this. Does anybody buy that politics had no role through Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and all the rest?

We can look at the Democratic Grand Plan, which seems to involve hostility toward any action that would tend to reduce voter fraud.

AH & Al Once again I question if you are real people. If you can't see the problems with politicizing the US attorneys there may be no hope for you.

AH & Al Once again I question if you are real people. If you can't see the problems with politicizing the US attorneys there may be no hope for you.

For Republicans the only professional knowledge than can be respected is knowing them.

Republicans really don't believe in evolution. Their continuing inability to change with a changing environment is proof positive they can't evolve.
Whistling Past the Graveyard
The inability of Republicans to change their ways in the face of massive unpopularity is downright spooky.
By Harold Meyerson
"The truly astonishing thing about the latest scandals besetting the Bush administration is that they stem from actions the administration took after the November elections, when Democratic control of Congress was a fait accompli.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' hour-long meeting on sacking federal prosecutors took place after the election. The subsequent sacking took place after the election. The videoconference between leaders of the General Services Administration and Karl Rove's deputy about how to help Republican candidates in 2008, according to people who attended the meeting, took place Jan. 26 this year.
During last year's congressional campaigns, Republicans spent a good deal of time and money predicting that if the Democrats won, Congress would become one big partisan fishing expedition led by zealots such as Henry Waxman. The Republicans' message didn't really impress the public, and apparently it didn't reach the president and his underlings, either. Since the election, they have continued merrily along with their mission to politicize every governmental function and agency as if their allies still controlled Congress, as if the election hadn't happened..."

"Can anyone name an agency which hasn't been subjected to the Brownie treatment?"

MsNThrope is exactly right. FEMA, FDA, DOJ, VA, the entire military... and these are just the departments/institutions where the rot is visible to the general public. The next occupant of the Oval Office is basically going spend an inordinate amount of money & time rebuilding what's been destroyed, but perhaps only Clinton (if she's elected) -- by virtue of having had the fullest perspective of what was in place before this administration took over -- would have the greatest sense of the scale of devastation that's taken place over the eight years of Bush's misrule.

Pathetic.

Al: "It's the JOB of the political appointees to make policy. The career staff simply follows the orders of the political appointees. That's the way it has always been."

Al, you're doin' a heckuva job.

On this particular subject of civil service, as is the case with so many other topics, the sheer combination of your cluelessness and blind fealty is simultaneously breathtaking and noteworthy.

In this administration, that qualfies you for a patronage position -- and were we to follow your logic to its natural conclusion, all government jobs would qualify as political patronage.

... almost forgot the GSA.

"Politicizing" U.S. attorneys?

I take it Clinton fired all of them at the beginning of his term because they were lousy attorneys, not because he needed politically-friendly people in there.

Apparently Kyle Sampson, Al and clark have trouble distinguishing between changing policy and changing law. At the Justice department, more so than any other government agency, respect for the law that had been followed and enforced throughout our history, should be a sacred trust. A change in policy (say to shift from focusing on white collar crime to focusing on pedophiles) is politically appropriate. But shifting from oversight of all voter fraud to focusing only on Democratic voter fraud is not politically appropriate. The people that don't understand the difference shouldn't be running the government.

"AH & Al Once again I question if you are real people."

American Hawk, Al, and egbert (or eggbeater, or whatever) are all the same person, posting under different names to make it look like he's not so much alone. They've all put up posts with amazingly similar phrasing in the past few days.

Al and AH:

you lose. Now go away.

… they were lousy attorneys, not because he needed politically-friendly people in there. rnc at 1:10 PM

Welcome to the Counter-Enlightenment.

Mike: Check out Glenn Greenwald today.

Great link, Mike. An article worth reading in full. Thanks for the heads up.

Some regurgitated stale talking point: I take it Clinton fired all of them at the beginning of his term because they were lousy attorneys, not because he needed politically-friendly people in there.

WaPo, Mar. 14, 2007:

It is customary for a President to replace U.S. Attorneys at the beginning of a term. Ronald Reagan replaced every sitting U.S. Attorney when he appointed his first Attorney General. President Clinton, acting through [Stuart M. Gerson] as Acting Attorney General, did the same thing, even with few permanent candidates in mind. What is unusual about the current situation is that it happened in the middle of a term.

But historical data compiled by the Senate show the pattern going back to President Reagan.

Reagan replaced 89 of the 93 U.S. attorneys in his first two years in office. President Clinton had 89 new U.S. attorneys in his first two years, and President Bush had 88 new U.S. attorneys in his first two years.

For news, email archives, hearings, legal filings and other essential documents on the Bush DOJ prosecutor firings, see:
"The U.S. Attorney Scandal Documents."

I take it Clinton fired all of them at the beginning of his term because they were lousy attorneys, not because he needed politically-friendly people in there.

Tsk, tsk, "rnc" -- that talking point is so last week.

And if you're too stupid to tell the difference, I wonder how you can tie your shoes.

SOB! Just now... Senate Repubs have objected (according to the rules of the Senate) to the Senate Judiciary Committee that was taking testimony from Sampson. Leahy adjourned the committee until further notice. WTF are they afraid of?

Can't say I am surprised considering the contempt that the political appointees have for facts/policy in general.

For many years now the career civil service has largely been protected from too much interference by political appointees and things have worked fairly well. Sure, all departments were headed up by political appointees and most top management positions were filled by political appointees who were concerned with advancing the agenda of their "boss", the guy in the WH, but there were lines that weren't crossed.

Under Bush all lines have been erased. They have been working tirelessly to convert all SES positions into patronage and have leaned heavily on career civil servants in the upper levels of the General Schedule service too.

Lets not all forget about the attempt to completely do away with unions for civil service employees, nearing successful completion in DHS and DoD, representing the vast majority of civil service employees. Once they have eviscerated union protections, they can set their sights on turning the entire federal civil service into one big patronage machine, where your performance appraisal is entirely dependant on your fealty to the party line.

It is all connected, a rotting fish from head to tail.

Leahy adjourned the committee...

It's back on.

Jeez -- any Democrat elected to the Presidency needs to issue directions to lay of everyone hired during the Bush administration in waves until this political crap is wiped out.

Likewise, all regulations for agencies need to be rolled back.

rnc: I take it Clinton fired all of them at the beginning of his term

Over the last 25-years only ten US Attorneys have been dismissed other than at the beginning of a new president's term of office.

- Congressional Research Service

what the bush admin. tried to do was roughly double that number...

in 1-day...

Another part of the plan:
One of Abu Gonzo's minions cost taxpayer's 100 Mil
U.S. Attorney Botches Biggest Ever Tax Fraud Case, Keeps Job. Treasury out $100+ Million

The U.S. Attorney Scandal has struck a new victim: the American taxpayer. A judge ruled Wednesday that an epic blunder by federal prosecutors in the largest tax prosecution ever means that the treasury can't recoup at least $100 million in restitution.
Telecommunications entrepreneur Walter Anderson pled guilty to tax evasion, but U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said the binding plea agreement listed the wrong statute. This problem could have been overcome had prosecutors not failed to include any discussion of probation as is routine in such deals.

Because of the technicality, Judge Friedman said, "I've come to the conclusion, very reluctantly, that I have no authority to order restitution. . . . This is a very poorly drafted agreement."

The case was prosecuted by the office of the interim U.S. Attorney for D.C., Jeffrey A. Taylor. Taylor was appointed directly by Attorney General Gonzales without Senate confirmation in November 2006 under a provision of the Patriot Act that Congress has recently voted to reverse....

KD: All part of the grand plan. All part of the plan.

Digby also picked up on the LATimes' piece about Rich and sees a historical pattern (with emphasis):

...What is a surprise is how nobody seems to have seen this coming. The rough outlines were available when I wrote about what I saw as an emerging "illegal aliens are voting" theme almost a year ago. I thought [the Republicans] were preparing to use it for last November but I was a premature anti-purger.

But since I first started writing on-line, one of my recurring themes is that the modern Republican party has become fundamentally hostile to democracy.(And we already knew they were crooks.) This was first made obvious to me back in 1994, when Republican leader Dick Armey famously stated "your president is just not that important for us." They went on to impeach that president against the clear will of the people.

Returning to the subject of corruption, David Corn on Tuesday, Mar. 27, 2007, at The Nation wrote, The Cunningham Scandal: A White House Link?

In [a] note to Joshua Bolten [sent on Monday], President Bush's chief of staff, Waxman requested information about a $140,000 contract the White House awarded in July 2002 to MZM, Inc. This was Mitchell Wade's company. He's the (now former-) military contractor who paid more than $1 million in bribes to Republican Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who's in jail for having accepted these and other bribes in return for steering federal contracts to Wade and Brent Wilkes, another defense contractor. (Wade pleaded guilty; Wilkes has not.) What's intriguing about the contract Wade received from the White House is that its amount equals the price Wade paid in August 2002 to buy the Duke-Stir, the yacht Cunningham lived (and partied) on in Washington. According to the sentencing recommendation memo in Cunningham's case, Cunningham himself negotiated the $140,000 purchase price of the boat in the summer of 2002. This raises the intriguing possibility that Wade that summer needed money to buy Cunningham the yacht and--presto--a White House contract materialized.

And there's more: this contract was Wade's first prime contract with the federal government. The firm had been incorporated in 1993 but had pulled in no revenue through 2001. So Cunningham scandal watchers have wondered, did a White House contract help launch Wade on his felonious ways, and was this contract legitimate?

The modest contract reportedly covered supplying computers and office furniture to Vice President Dick Cheney's office. By the time it was signed, MZM, which had become an approved federal contractor only two months earlier, was already bribing Cunningham, a member of the influential defense appropriations subcommittee. Two months later, in September 2002, MZM hit it big, scoring a $250 million, five-year contract with the General Services Administration. Look at the timeline, one congressional investigator notes: May, MZM was listed as a federal supplier; July, it won a White House contract for $140,000; September, it obtained a $250 million contract. A not-too-suspicious mind could wonder if something--or someone--was juicing the process.

A committee chairman with access to subpoenas might have better luck. Waxman has asked for all MZM contracts related to the White House and other materials, such as any communications between Wade, Wilkes, MZM officials and White House employees. Waxman's request also covers communications between the White House and Interior relating to MZM--for the obvious reason.

It could be that MZM in the summer of 2002 managed to snag a small White House contract in legitimate fashion, even as Wade was plotting a quick, bribery-greased rise to the top. But given that the Cunningham/MZM tale is one of sleaze and crime--I haven't even mentioned the prostitutes Cunningham received as bribes--Wade's first contract with the Bush administration deserves scrutiny. Republican legislators--no surprise--expressed no interest in this when they ran Congress. And, coincidentally or not, the US attorney in charge of the Cunningham case, Carol Lam, is one of the prosecutors who was fired by the Bush administration. But here comes Waxman, and the Case of MZM's First Contract is alive and open.

All of this just reminds me once again of the firing of USA Carol Lam.

Please see:

Bush's long history of politicizing justice

It's not only the U.S. attorneys who are threatened by partisan politics. Since Day One, the Bush administration has been quietly dismantling the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.

By Alia Malek

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/30/
civil_rights/

The Thinker
Perhaps we now know why the shrub failed to respond when he was told during that reading of "My Pet Goat" that our nation was under attack.
Under this guy and his cronies nothing gets done until the political commissars give the green light. He waited. What response brings us more control and power, he asked himself. What spin comes to mind?
What would George do if a toilet overflowed? Or perhaps it already has.

Umm, interesting post, but what I'm really excited about is seeing someone construct the plural correctly! That is, "attorneys general".

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