Schlozman's Intimidating Remarks-Even Being A Republican Wasn't Good Enough

[kpete]

The Washington Post focuses on Schlozman's handling of the appellate section when he was a senior political appointee at the Civil Rights Division, and finds that even being a Republican wasn't enough to assure Schlozman of a lawyer's abilities -- you had to be his kind of Republican:

Schlozman raised the question of partisan politics bluntly in the fall of 2004, they said, when asking appellate supervisors about the "loyalty" of division lawyer Angela Miller, who had once clerked for David. B. Sentelle, a conservative federal appeals judge. He told Miller's bosses that he learned that she voted for McCain in the 2004 Republican primary and asked, "Can we still trust her?"

He also warned section chief Diana Flynn that he would be keeping an eye on the legal work of another career lawyer who "didn't even vote for Bush," according to colleagues who said they heard Flynn describe the exchange. Miller told several of the colleagues that she considered Schlozman's remarks a form of intimidation, and started looking for another job, the lawyers said.

Schlozman and several deputies also took an unusual interest in the assignment of office responsibility for appellate cases and, according to the lawyers and one of the supervisors, repeatedly ordered Flynn to take cases away from career lawyers with expertise and hand them to recent hires whose résumés listed membership in conservative groups, including the Federalist Society.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003492.php

[L. Coyote]

1. Schlozman had "minority women transferred out of their jobs two years ago"

Political Hiring in Justice Division Probed
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post
Thursday, June 21, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/20/AR2007062002543_pf.html

Karen Stevens, Tovah Calderon and Teresa Kwong had a lot in common. They had good performance ratings as career lawyers in the Justice Department's civil rights division. And they were minority women transferred out of their jobs two years ago -- over the objections of their immediate supervisors -- by Bradley Schlozman, then the acting assistant attorney general for civil rights.

Schlozman ordered supervisors to tell the women that they had performance problems or that the office was overstaffed. But one lawyer, Conor Dugan, told colleagues that the recent Bush appointee had confided that his real motive was to "make room for some good Americans" in that high-impact office, according to four lawyers who said they heard the account from Dugan.

.........

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee plan today to shine a renewed spotlight on decision-making in the division by questioning Schlozman's replacement, Wan Kim, about hiring practices and about its support for state voter-identification programs that could inhibit minority voting.

Democrats also plan to ask about the dwindling diversity of the staff in a division whose core mission includes fighting racial discrimination. The Bush administration, largely under Schlozman, hired seven members as replacements or additions to the 14-lawyer appellate section where Stevens, Calderon and Kwong worked. They included six whites, one Asian and no African Americans. ................

[aquart]

2. Sexist, racist slime.

Make the slug grovel. Then put him in jail.

[L. Coyote]

3. This fish is getting fried today at the Senate Judiciary Hearing "Civil Rights Division Oversight"

"Civil Rights Division Oversight"
Senate Judiciary Committee

View a webcast of this hearing
DATE: June 21, 2007, 2:00 PM

Senator Cardin will preside over the hearing on “Civil Rights Division Oversight”

Panel I

Wan Kim
Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights Division
U. S. Department of Justice
Washington, DC

Panel II

Wade Henderson
President and CEO
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Washington, DC

Brian Landsberg
Professor
McGeorge School of Law
University of the Pacific
Sacramento, CA

Helen Norton
Visiting Assistant Professor
School of Law
University of Maryland
Baltimore, MD

Roger Clegg
President and General Counsel
Center for Equal Opportunity
Falls Church, VA

Robert N. Driscoll
Partner
Alston & Bird LLP
Washington, DC

[L. Coyote]

4. DU Archive: Missouri attorney a focus in USA firings = Bradley Schlozman

Missouri attorney a focus in USA firings = Bradley Schlozman
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x832164

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Missouri attorney a focus in firings
Senate bypassed in appointment of Schlozman
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | May 6, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/05/06/missouri_attorney_a_focus_in_firings

WASHINGTON -- Todd Graves brought just four misdemeanor voter fraud indictments during his five years as the US attorney for western Missouri -- even though some of his fellow Republicans in the closely divided state wanted stricter oversight of Democratic efforts to sign up new voters. ...........

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Bush Appointee "Led by Power"
By Paul Kiel - April 26, 2007, 2:27 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003101.php

So far, Bradley Schlozman has been a minor character in the U.S. attorneys scandal. He ought to be a major one.
To put the case succinctly: Schlozman was the most aggressively political of the political appointees in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

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U. S. ATTORNEYS - 2006 Missouri's election was ground zero for GOP
By Greg Gordon - McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17168096.htm

WASHINGTON - Accusations about voter fraud seemed to fly from every direction in Missouri before last fall's elections. State and national Republicans leaders fretted that dead people might vote or that some live people might vote more than once.

The threat to the integrity of the election was seen as so grave that Bradley Schlozman, the acting chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and later the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, twice wielded the power of the federal government to try to protect the balloting. The Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly also stepped into action. ...............

Schlozman, while he was acting civil rights chief, authorized a suit accusing the state of failing to eliminate legions of ineligible people from lists of registered voters. A federal judge tossed out the suit this April 13 .............