DOJ Effectively OKs Putting "Party" Before The Law
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In an intriguing bit of Orwellian-speak, Mukasey told an American Bar Association audience that "not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime." Funny, the Merriam-Webster dictionary contradicts the AG, stating that a crime is (emphasis added) "an act or the commission of an act that is forbidden or the omission of a duty that is commanded by a public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law."
And the hiring practices were a clear violation of the law, as the DOJ's internal investigation reported last month.
Mukasey also suggested that failure to penalize the officials who broke the law is an illustration of the adage that "two wrongs do not make a right."
While I think that Monica Goodling is the wrong lens through which to view this mess (as most media are doing), the law that was broken dates to the 1870s. A reminder, Mr. Attorney General: the law broken -- what you described as "only violations of the civil service laws" -- was designed specifically to keep the "spoils system" out of the day-to-day running of the government.
Breaking this law is not a trivial matter, like jay walking. Civil servants are supposed to be judged on merit, not politics. What of their derailed careers?
The NY Times reports that Beth Slavet, former chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, believes an independent review is called for. “Someone needs to clean up this mess that the Justice Department created, and I don’t think what Mukasey is doing goes far enough," she said.
There has been an exodus of political appointees from the DOJ, not the least being former AG Gonzales, as the result of this, and other, DOJ atrocities under this Administration. When nominated as the new AG, Mukasey was hailed by many as someone who would return integrity to the nation's top office of law enforcement. His announcement today suggests that faith was a case of misplaced hope.
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