The inspector general at the justice department has just confirmed an open (not-so) secret. The Justice Department has been consciously seeking to stock the civil service ranks in the justice department with conservative lawyers, without much regard to credentials, such as intelligence or legal ability.
High-ranking political appointees at the Justice Department labored to stock a prestigious hiring program with young conservatives in a five-year-long attempt to reshape the department’s ranks, according to an inspector general’s report to be released today.
The report will trace the effort to 2002, early in the Bush administration, when key advisers to then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft moved to exert more control over the program to hire rookie lawyers and summer interns, according to two people familiar with the probe.
The honors program, which each year places about 150 law school graduates with top credentials in a rotation of Justice jobs, historically had operated under the control of senior career officials. Shifting control of the program to Ashcroft’s advisers prompted charges of partisanship from law professors and former government lawyers who had worked under Democratic administrations.
This has been known for years, but there’s a certain satisfaction in having it confirmed.
This report underscores one of the many challenges that will face a President Obama in January. The Justice Department is not unique. The Bushies have perverted the system throughout the government in a conscious attempt to undermine the various agencies. What better way to prove that government cannot work than by seeding its ranks with people who take that position as an article of faith, and will do whatever they can to make sure they are proven right.
Obama will find himself struggling against these people at every turn. They were hired for political reasons, but they are now protected by the civil service system that was subverted in order to hire them. Bush and his minions have a proven record of incompetence almost across the board. The one exception was their ability to identify the weak spots in the system and exploit them in order to grab and retain power, even, as seems likely, in the event of electoral failure.
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