Ex-DOJ employees taking on the * admin

[babylonsister]

Ex-DOJ employees spar with administration

By: Lisa Lerer
Aug 10, 2007 12:25 PM EST


Attorney General Alberto Gonzales knows well the ways of sparring with the Senate Judiciary Committee, but increasingly he is facing an uncommon and more effective adversary: former Department of Justice career attorneys who are out to settle the score with Gonzales and the administration.

After months of scandal, firings and some testimony from Gonzales that many on Capitol Hill found wholly unsatisfying, these ex-Justice Department employees are taking a rare step and fighting back.

Former employees of the Civil Rights Division are channeling their workplace rage into lobbying force. The government lawyers say they were ignored, disrespected and kicked out by Bush appointees. The attorneys describe an increasingly partisan workplace, where political appointees intimidated career lawyers and undermined civil rights to push political agendas.

The Justice Department rejects the charges. "Many of the criticisms of the Civil Rights Division and its current and former employees are unfounded,” said Civil Rights Division spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson. “It is unfortunate that critics repeatedly ignore the division's strong record and resort to political and personal attacks."

But the ex-employees, now safely out of the administration, are undeterred and are increasingly speaking out in a clamor of congressional testimony, letters to committees, scathing op-eds and a whole lot of well-publicized trash talking.

For a government lawyer, it's the equivalent of going postal. "These are people who have spent their entire lives being loyal ," said Mark Agrast, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress focused on legal issues. "It goes against their grain to speak out."

more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5331.html

[villager]

1. about goddamned time they decided to quit being "Good Germans," and speak out...

...as we are down to a few last-chance efforts to save whatever tattered remains of a "republic" we have...

[hisownpetard]

2. I've been waiting for this day to come! Thanks for posting - n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Explain to me what is highly illegal:

this is my understanding:

(1) According to the right-wing, it's not illegal to replace Federal prosecutors based on political affiliation.

(2) But it IS illegal to use the DOJ for political vendettas. Yes?

If this is all true, then how is it possible to keep the DOJ objective, if all the prosecutors are hand-picked for their allegiance to one party? And how is it possible to hide it when it's obvious that the Dem to Republican ratio of investigations is running 4:1?

[EFerrari]

6. Isn't the problem that these people were fired for failing to help

tamper with an election?

In other words, if you were prez and got a whole new crew at the start of your term, that would be all right. But, if you fired attorneys who didn't play ball with your political team just before an election, that's not all right.

I thought that was where they overstepped. :shrug:

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Oh, absolutely, that's a foregone conclusion.

But, there had to be a beginning to this, because, as the right-wing says it's okay to replace prosecutors for political reasons, because, Clinton did. And, yes, he did. At the beginning of his term. Not, like Bush, after he was well installed and fighting potential prosecution, as well as showing a clear indication that he was using those appointed prosecutors for his own personal political purposes. At some point, what he did became a Nuclear Saturday Massacre, but this seems to be seeping into the collective American brain at a snail pace.

So, the question is, at a certain point this should have turned into a smoking gun and EVERYONE should be on the same page if we're playing fair. I'm just wondering, why the snail pace from the right, if they had any desire to be on the same page of fairness.

[EFerrari]

11. Because there was no structure for that, so those career professionals

had to try to fight back one by one, imho.

[Richard Steele]

10. It's based on the notion that professionals could place truth and fairness above politics.

They were EXPECTED to do their jobs IMPARTIALLY, regardless
of the fact that they were appointees.

Much like a President is expected to govern in the best interests
of ALL citizens, not just the ones who voted for him.

[formercia]

4. Close and engage.

Go git 'em. Smoke out those * bots.

[Senator]

5. K&R

[WillyT]

8. "Palmer described himself as the son of Latino immigrants."

David Palmer... Latino???

:rofl::wtf::rofl:

Must have gotten a memo from Gonzo to change his name.

[ooglymoogly]

9. Oh yeah!!!!!