Gonzales delegated hiring authority to Goodling and Sampson in secret memo

[ProSense]

Monday, April 30, 2007

Hiring authority at the Bush DOJ

Sandy Levinson

There is a remarkable article in today's National Journal about the "delegation" by Alberto Gonzales of basic appointment authority to Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson. This was accomplished in a secret memo. Apparently the first version was declared unconstitutional by OLC because it gave final authority to them; it was then revised to require approval by the AG (but, interestingly, by no one else in the DOJ), and one can be confident that the ever-soporific AG would sign anything put in front of him. Goodling and Sampson had become the de facto "deciders" at DOJ.

As the article points out, what is truly shocking is the delegation to manifestly inexperienced and ideologically driven people like Goodling and Sampson. Callow defenses of the necessity to delegate or the fact that people serve in the DOJ at the President's pleasure will not overcome the fact that this is the kind of behavior one associates with fourth-rate authoritarian governments with no scintilla of respect for what used to be called "the rule of law."

What the article omits is the extent to which religious affiliation--or at least graduation from reilgiously-affiliated law schools--has increasingly become a prerequisite for employment in the modern DOJ. This needs to be a focus on inquiry when Ms. Goodling, Regent Law School '99, comes before the committee. She was a central participant in the "culture war" that was being waged from within the DOJ. (And, no, it was not simply a matter of becoming justifiably less "elitist" and looking for the best-and-brightest from non-elite law schools.)

In any event, at long last the painful reality of the current DOJ is coming into public view. As Marty has earlier written, to focus on Gonzales's personal unfitness to serve as AG is to miss the main story. The DOJ needs to be put in receivership.

Best http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/04/hiring-authority-at-bush-doj.html#1378064810905960445">comment in response to the above:

The buck stops with Bush not Gonzalez.

I'm not sure that there is a more compelling example to support the proposition that the Constitution should be amended to permit impeachment on the basis of maladministration in addition to high crimes and misdemeanors, as the professor has so cogently proposed.

[DeepBlueC]

1. This is Wiping Off Fingerprints

Lesson #1 in the Cheney School of Government.

[Tyler Durden]

2. If these assholes decide to "take one for the Team"....

...Then they should get the absolute MAX on whatever they can be indicted for .

[bdamomma]

3. pure incompetence among pure incompetence

[DearAbby]

4. Err What are we paying Gonzo for again? -nt

[magellan]

5. This highlights Bush**'s unprecedented assault on our justice system

With all the other things we have to worry about when dealing with DAs, attorneys and judges, the last thing on anyone's mind (except in the delusional world of freepers) is that they may be partisan hacks. Well, get used to it now. The Repugs spent six years claiming the system was filled with "activists" whenever the Rule of Law didn't give them satisfaction -- a tempest in a teapot to distract from their hypocritical and surreptitious replacement of everyone they could with Bush** loyalists. Sampson and Goodling's job was to politicize our judicial system across the nation, and they succeeded.

There's no branch of government that isn't controlled by the neocons now. And yes, despite the Dem majority I include Congress...until they start acting like the co-equal branch they are.