Monica’s DOJ Makeover
by Scott Horton
from No Comment
As I noted in “Vote Machine,” one simmering scandal inside of the Justice Department relates to the consistent carefully schemed effort to force career DOJ employees out to make way for political hacks recruited and placed in career positions. A number of different techniques were employed to realize this plan. In an interview I conducted recently with a retired first assistant U.S. attorney, I heard how one U.S. attorney with notorious political ambitions had used a buyout scheme to take out a large number of senior career attorneys. No sooner were they gone than their places were filled with a group of new attorneys–each of whom was well known for involvement in Republican Party politics. On January 20, 2009, the political appointees at Justice will be submitting their resignations so the new president can select and install his own team. However, the career track placements from the Bush era are there for keeps. Will they serve as a fifth column to obstruct the agenda of a new Democratic administration? That may well be the idea.
As we noted earlier, Regent University alumna Monica Goodling had worked closely with Karl Rove’s opposition research team and then found herself installed in the Justice Department as a personnel gatekeeper. Alberto Gonzales at one point issued a secret order conveying to Monica his power to hire and fire at the department, a move which was probably designed to give Rove and his crew control over the process, and to provide Gonzales with plausible deniability. Yesterday NPR offered some precious detail, seemingly leaked from the pending internal DOJ investigation, into how Monica performed the grim reaper side of her job portfolio. They examine the case of Leslie Hagen, a Justice employee forced out by Goodling. Why exactly?
(Continued here.)
from No Comment
As I noted in “Vote Machine,” one simmering scandal inside of the Justice Department relates to the consistent carefully schemed effort to force career DOJ employees out to make way for political hacks recruited and placed in career positions. A number of different techniques were employed to realize this plan. In an interview I conducted recently with a retired first assistant U.S. attorney, I heard how one U.S. attorney with notorious political ambitions had used a buyout scheme to take out a large number of senior career attorneys. No sooner were they gone than their places were filled with a group of new attorneys–each of whom was well known for involvement in Republican Party politics. On January 20, 2009, the political appointees at Justice will be submitting their resignations so the new president can select and install his own team. However, the career track placements from the Bush era are there for keeps. Will they serve as a fifth column to obstruct the agenda of a new Democratic administration? That may well be the idea.
As we noted earlier, Regent University alumna Monica Goodling had worked closely with Karl Rove’s opposition research team and then found herself installed in the Justice Department as a personnel gatekeeper. Alberto Gonzales at one point issued a secret order conveying to Monica his power to hire and fire at the department, a move which was probably designed to give Rove and his crew control over the process, and to provide Gonzales with plausible deniability. Yesterday NPR offered some precious detail, seemingly leaked from the pending internal DOJ investigation, into how Monica performed the grim reaper side of her job portfolio. They examine the case of Leslie Hagen, a Justice employee forced out by Goodling. Why exactly?
(Continued here.)
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