Tears of a Clown

In the this beats all category, Bloomberg reports, Goodling Shed Tears Before Revelations About Firings:

A former U.S. Justice Department official and central figure in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys tearfully told a colleague two months ago her government career probably was over as the matter was about to erupt into a political storm, according to closed-door congressional testimony.

Monica Goodling, at the time an aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, sobbed for 45 minutes in the office of career Justice Department official David Margolis on March 8 as she related her fears that she would have to quit, according to congressional aides briefed on Margolis's private testimony to House and Senate investigators.

She's crying? Is she shedding tears for the US Attorneys who were fired and who've had to endure (unjustified) smears to their reputations and careers? No, she's crying because she knew she was going to lose a job she never should have had in the first place. See, The New & Improved 5th Amendment and The Face of a "Loyal Bushie". See also Department of Just-Christians (Bill Maher on Monica Goodling's "credentials").

Compare that to this comment from a reader of Talking Points Memo, who is a prosecutor from Washington state, discussing the firing of Seattle US Attorney John McKay:

Apparently during [former Deputy Attorney General] Comey's testimony today he said that one of the reasons McKay got himself in hot water with the DOJ heavyweights was because he was pushing for additional resources to investigate the murder of Tom Wales, who was an Assistant US Attorney in Seattle. Tom Wales was shot and killed in 2001. What nobody has talked about, and what you may not be aware of, is the fact that Tom Wales was extremely active in attempting to get tighter gun control laws passed here in Washington.

Think about that for a second. A pro-gun control federal prosecutor was shot and killed. John McKay was agitating for more resources to bring his killer to justice. That pissed off DOJ, who apparently thought that McKay should spend his time going after bogus voter fraud prosecutions rather than solve the murder of a guy who was in favor of gun control. If you don't think the fact that Tom Wales' political views weren't taken into consideration by the higher ups at DOJ when they decided to punish McKay for fighting to find his killer, you haven't been paying attention to the way these guys have operated for the last 6 years. Every single thing they do is about politics, and the political views of those they help or hurt.

There it is again. As I noted in, A Long History, the US Attorney scandal has exposed the Bush Administration's politicization of the Department of Justice. However,John DiIulio, who served as the head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, was prescient about this when he said in a 2003 Esquire interview with Ron Suskind, Why Are These Men Laughing?:

"There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus," says DiIulio. "What you’ve got is everything—and I mean everything—being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."

Yes. The Bush Administration: Politics is all.