Wall between political operatives, agencies crumbling

[L. Coyote]

Wall between political operatives, agencies crumbling
By Alexis Simendinger National Journal June 4, 2007
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0607/060407nj1.htm

Monica Goodling learned everything she needed to know about screening candidates for Justice Department jobs during her year as an opposition researcher at the Republican National Committee. If President Bush's critics were looking for a simple testimonial to illustrate how the White House managed to push GOP-centered political considerations deep into the executive branch, Goodling's House testimony last week provided it.

Or maybe just one more example. Democratic committee chairmen are digging into the small type of government contracts that benefited Bush administration friends. They want to know more about White House briefings that encouraged workers in federal agencies to help the GOP. And they want to know much more about White House e-mails written on Republican National Committee accounts -- especially the ones that seem to have gone missing.

Goodling explained to lawmakers that her RNC training, including poring over old news clippings and checking voter registrations to identify like-minded Republicans, proved helpful in her subsequent job as an adviser to the attorney general, since she was one of three or four people who screened new hires in the Justice Department. But more important, Goodling told Congress, was her ability after seven years with the Bush team to ferret out -- with detailed guidance from those above her -- the attributes her bosses at Justice and the White House valued in prospective prosecutors.

"I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions," ............