Turley: 'Pathetic' if Monica Goodling takes fall for Bush officials

[rateyes]

Source: Rawstory

While a recent report on illegal politicization of the Justice Department is a good first step in introducing accountability to the Bush administration, it would be "pathetic" if culpability stops with midlevel aides like Monica Goodling, a constitutional expert says.

Monday's report from the Justice Department's Inspector General and Office of Professional responsibility concluded that Goodling and Kyle Sampson, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's chief of staff, acted illegally in eliminating applicants for career department jobs on the basis of political affiliation or sexual orientation.

Calling the Goodling/Sampson efforts "like the Voldemort department of human resources," constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley tells MSNBC's Keith Olbermann that the report offers "a glimpse at just how unhinged the Bush Justice Department became."

Turley says the 146-page report (available here) provides some information that had not previously been disclosed in congressional investigations of the firing of nine federal prosecutors, which is believed to have been politically motivated. But he says more investigation is needed to determine whose idea it was to staff the department almost exclusively with Republican loyalists.



Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Turley_Pathetic_if_Monica_Goodling_takes_0729.html

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Well, with the lack of spines in the Democratic Leadership (most notably Conyers and Pelosi) "pathetic" is an apt description.

[cobalt1999]

1. Nixon wasn't even this bad. n/t

[rateyes]

2. Nixon was a choir boy compared to the thugs in office now. nt

[Stuart G]

8. I agree, Nixon was in a different league.

And I remember thinking how bad he was.. This crowd is beyond anything I could imagine then..

[Acadia Blue]

12. Ditto.............Bush is a peice of garbage and criminal too

[redqueen]

3. I was wondering yesterday if the buck would stop with a mid-level aide. (nt)

[rabies1]

17. Just as low ranking soldiers went down for AG prisoner abuse.

Never mind Rumsfeld, Rove, etc. Who thinks Scooter Libby wont be simply pardoned in the end? Law doesn't apply to folks high enough in the chain of command. Sick of it. What's this teaching OUR kids? What's it teaching other countries?

[redqueen]

18. It's teaching them that cronyism works, crime pays, and integrity is for paupers. (nt)

[Supersedeas]

23. like Abu Gharaib -- the Bush League cowards will paint it as a few bad apples

[tanyev]

4. While it's become more and more obvious that the Bush administration

worked to staff all federal departments and agencies with loyal Bushies, I don't know if Monica would have needed much direction in that from anyone above her. She seemed to be a rabid partei-uber-alles kind of gal.

[rateyes]

5. Which is why she was hired, wouldn't you think? nt

[tanyev]

10. Yes, but in order to hold anyone above her accountable, wouldn't there have to be some proof

that she was directed to make these decisions that broke the law? That proof may not exist. Monica may have been so eager to serve the Glorious Leader that she came up with this plan all by herself. Or she may have been directed more subtly, with some nudge-nudge, wink-wink conversations that could never be proven.

[Javaman]

6. It's a sad statement when something is "pathetic" is actually something that is

also hopeful.

[Barrymores Ghost]

7. Here's the plea deal they should offer her:

Give up Gonzales and Rove, and you get off with a slap on the wrist...10 years probation, lose your license to practice law in any state and lose your right to ever hold any public office.

If you cop the nickel, refuse to implicate your superiors, or get caught in a lie, we're going for 15-20 years on multiple felony counts with no chance for parole at a maximum-security facility in the Virginia prison system.

I'll bet she'll ask them what key they'd like her to sing in.

[klyon]

9. she already got immunity to testify before a committee

(sorry I don't remember which one) she won't be going to jail but others could

[klyon]

11. unless she lied then her immunity is gone

[Acadia Blue]

13. Wish that would happen

[burythehatchet]

14. Anyone know where Pat's Skool 'a Lawerin' is located"?

[Pastiche423]

21. Regent University

is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent_University

[bunny planet]

15. Just more of that 'a few bad apples' system of accountability that passes for

justice in the blivet administration.

[redqueen]

20. Hah... I just learned what "blivet" means.

Good word for 'em. :thumbsup:

[damntexdem]

16. Pathetic, but better than if no one does.

And she so richly deserves to take a fall.

[AlinPA]

19. I don't care what happens to her. She is still a slimy Rpig.

[UTUSN]

22. Unfortunately, only *we* here listen to TURLEY, John DEAN, and Keith. n/t

[radfringe]

24. HEADS UP --- Hearing on Politicizing DOJ TODAY

Hearing on Politicizing DOJ
Today
http://www.c-span.org/

Monica Goodling, former White House liaison at the Justice Dept., allowed politics to influence the hiring of attorneys, the DoJ's Inspector General reported yesterday. The Senate Judiciary Cmte. hears about the impact of these practices from I.G. Glenn Fine.

C-SPAN Video Library: Monica Goodling
on C-SPAN3 at 10am (ET)
Justice Illegally Used Politics

[Bake]

25. LET her take the fall? They're COUNTING ON IT.

When will these starry-eyed little college Puke types wake up and realize that they are nothing more than tools for their Party Masters (aka Thieves)? Goodling, with her hero worship of Bush, was the perfect tool and now they'll snicker while she takes the heat for them.

Why don't these fools wake up??????

Bake

[Supersedeas]

26. the silence of Mukasey is very revealing -- getting his Newsspeak together?