Department of INJustice

The big new today was the release of a report from the Department of Justice that – shock and surprise – concluded that several Bush appointees at the Department broke the law by favoring political considerations over qualifications in their hiring decisions.

At first blush, one’s reaction is “Duh… like we haven’t known this for awhile?" And that’s pretty much the way the MSM is covering it. But then Kevin Drum digs out this nugget about one of the first of Monica Goodling’s vetoes:

He was an experienced terrorism prosecutor and had successfully prosecuted a high-profile terrorism case for which he received the Attorney General's Award
for Exceptional Service....Battle stated that Voris told him that the candidate was head and shoulders above the other candidates who had applied for the counterterrorism detail.

Sounds like a great guy. But there was a problem:

The candidate's wife was a prominent local Democrat elected official and vice-chairman of a local Democratic Party. She also ran several Democratic congressional campaigns....Battle, Kelly, and EOUSA Deputy Director Nowacki all told us that Goodling refused to allow the candidate to be detailed to EOUSA solely on the basis of his wife's political party affiliation.

This from an Administration that is/was willing to abrogate the constitution because it was SO IMPORTANT to pursue the war on terror….. unless, of course, it meant hiring someone whose wife was an active Democrat.