One aspect of the DoJ's illegal hiring practices not mentioned here yesterday, was the department's bias against perceived homosexuality:
Goodling intervened and blocked the extension. The report said that several witnesses told investigators that her opposition was based on the "alleged sexual orientation."
One official told investigators about a conversation in which he told Goodling that he had heard the rumors that the women were lesbians. He said Goodling responded to that news "by putting her head in her hands and asking why no one had told her about this information before."
Monday's report also said that Goodling used an Internet search that included the words "gay" and "homosexual" to screen candidates and their backgrounds.
Investigators found that Goodling used the same search parameters as Jan Williams, who served as White House liaison before Goodling. The report said that Williams had used the string in late 2005 and early 2006 to research candidates for positions on a national advisory commission on violence against women.
Dan Froomkin, on the DoJers named in the department's Inspector General report for illegal hiring practices:
Who asked them to behave this way? Or, barring an explicit request, how did they come to conclude that this was what their superiors expected of them? Who twisted the Justice Department, designed to operate with a large degree of independence, into a political adjunct of the White House?
And is it really just a coincidence that Monica Goodling, the central culprit of this latest report, held the title of White House liaison?
Patrick Leahy thinks he knows:
"The policies and attitudes of this administration encouraged politicization of the department and permitted these excesses," charged Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. "It is now clear that these politically rooted actions were widespread, and could not have been done without at least the tacit approval of senior department officials."
The New York Times opines that current Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, "needs to get serious about punishing this sort of wrongdoing," if "he hopes to leave office with any sort of reputation for integrity..." Fat chance. Mukasey was installed to put the DoJ back together while simultaneously thwarting any investigation of its activities. That was the apparent deal with Congressional Democrats, who seem unwilling to hold anybody from the Bush administration accountable for their actions, lest Fox News say something nasty about them.
Dallas News' Rod Dreher explains why conservatives should be up in arms about this DoJ scandal:
We conservatives are big on insisting that racial and gender quotas in hiring are bad, because they substitute a false and politically correct standard for hiring, a standard that marginalizes people who are actually more capable of doing the job. I believe that. What the Bush crowd did at Justice, though, makes a mockery of conservative arguments for meritocracy in hiring. The damage this administration has done to conservatism is going to take a long time to overcome. Heck of a job, Alberto. Heck of a job.
Honestly, I haven't encountered many conservatives - especially actual, living, breathing members of the Republican party - who seem to feel that they should be subservient to any ideal that interferes with what they want to do. Blame it on Ayn Rand or whatever, but there it is. |
