Gonzo Update

Day 21 28 35 of FAUX NEWS Embargo of the Gonzales Story.

Yesterday, AG Gonzlaes testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Like his previous testimony, AG Gonzales did his best Sgt. Schultz impersonation. As Joe Conason for Salon wrote:

What the six-hour hearing established most clearly is that most Republicans remain united behind Gonzales despite the clear evidence of his incompetence, dishonesty and contempt for Congress as an institution. Unlike their counterparts in the Senate, none of the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee even posed a sharp question to him, let alone urged his resignation. Instead they acted in partisan lockstep, expressing sympathy for the poor attorney general's ordeal, pretending that there is no scandal and no stonewall, and insisting that the investigation should end.

So despite the events of the last week (and last few weeks), AG Gonzales still can't answer the most simple of question, not to mention questions of a more probing nature. For example:

Update: Mr. Gonzales, why are you only hiring pro-Republicans in the DOJ?

CNN: Congressional investigators are looking into new allegations a top official at the Justice Department illegally hired career lawyers based on their political affiliations. Investigators are focusing on Bradley Schlozman, a former top official in the department's Civil Rights Division, who recently returned to Washington after serving as interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Missouri. Richard Ugelow, a former Justice lawyer, said the department has been hiring "people who have certain political persuasion and only a certain political persuasion" in recent years."That's not healthy for enforcement of the nation's civil rights laws," said Ugelow, who now teaches law at Washington's American University.

According to the Boston Globe, "Half of the 14 career lawyers hired under Schlozman were members of the conservative Federalist Society or the Republican National Lawyers Association, up from none among the eight career hires in the previous two years, according to a review of resumes. The average US News & World Report ranking of the law school attended by new career lawyers plunged from 15 to 65."

"Critics said candidates were being hired more for their political views than legal credentials. David Becker , a former voting rights division trial attorney, said that Schlozman's hiring of politically driven conservatives to protect minority voting rights created a "wolf guarding the henhouse situation."

Bradley Schlozman is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next Tuesday, May 15.

Update: Mr. Gonazles, you turned over power in a secret memo to Monica Goodling (Along with Kyle Sampson) to hire and fire DOJ employees, was that so she would only hire Pro-Republicans?

Newsweek: Two government officials (not ID'd when talking about an ongoing probe) told NEWSWEEK the inquiry began after Jeff Taylor, the interim U.S. attorney in D.C., complained that [Monica] Goodling tried to block the hiring of a prosecutor in his office for being a "liberal Democratic type."

Update: Mr. Gonzales, is the reason that in the secret memo you chose Monica, the White Liaison, was to allow Karl Rove direct say in who would be hired and fired?

According to the National Journal, "The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. "

Update: Mr. Gonzales, was former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves the Ninth USA to be purged?

Former Missouri USA Todd Graves fired and quickly replaced by Bradley Schlozman in March 2006. Schlozman had no prosecutorial experience and bypassed Senate confirmation.

"Bradley Schlozman moved aggressively where Graves had not, announcing felony indictments of four workers for a liberal activist group (ACORN) on voter registration fraud charges less than a week before the 2006 election.

Critics said Schlozman violated a department policy to wait until after an election to bring voter fraud indictments if the case could affect the outcome, either by becoming a campaign issue or by scaring legitimate voters into staying home.

A 1995 Justice election crime manual says "federal prosecutors . . . should be extremely careful not to conduct overt investigations during the preelection period" to avoid "chilling legitimate voting and campaign activities" and causing "the investigation itself to become a campaign issue."

"Schlozman was reshaping the Civil Rights Division," said Joe Rich , who was chief of the voting rights section until taking a buyout in 2005, in an interview. "Schlozman didn't know anything about voting law. . . .All he knew is he wanted to be sure that the Republicans were going to win."

Interesting because, "Only weeks before last year’s pivotal midterm elections, the White House (Karl Rove) urged the Justice Department to pursue voter-fraud allegations against Democrats in three battleground states, a high-ranking Justice official has told congressional investigators."

Update: Mr. Gonzlaes, was former U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Thomas Heffelfinger the tenth USA to be purged?

Heffelfinger abruptly resigned in February 2006 of last year, one month after he'd appeared on a draft of Kyle Sampson's list of U.S. attorneys to be fired. He was replaced by 33 year-old Federalist Society member and former senior aide in the Justice Department, Rachel Paulose.

As I wrote on April 6th, four of Rachel Paulose's top staff voluntarily demoted themselves, fed up with her, who, after just months on the job, has earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings.