Of Partisanship and Political Tribalism

This week the Justice Department's Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility released a sobering report documenting serious abuses of power at the Department. The report validates my suspicions of wrongdoing at the Department -- suspicions that only grew stronger during every month of the Congressional investigation I launched into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.

This week's report painted the picture of a Justice Department that became the political playground of unchecked Bush appointees who placed partisanship above competence and political tribalism above blind justice. It found that an experienced prosecutor up for a counter-terrorism position whose wife happened to be an active Democrat was passed over in favor of an unqualified candidate. In another case, a career attorney was denied promotion because of her perceived sexual orientation. Political cronies were selected to be immigration judges. This might have been acceptable if this was done for political appointee positions, but these were all nonpartisan career positions -- at least they were supposed to be.

This report was just the first of three related to the politicization of the Justice Department to be released so far. The contents were alarming enough to cause Attorney General Michael Mukasey to concede that these practices should never happen again. He should not have to wait for the results of the next two reports in order to conclude that the serious wrongdoing at the Department warrants him working with Congress, not against us in our efforts to get to the truth.

Earlier this year, Mr. Mukasey refused to refer contempt charges on both former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton to a federal prosecutor for disobeying congressional subpoenas.

Today, the House Judiciary Committee recommended that the House of Representatives hold Karl Rove in contempt for similarly defying a congressional subpoena that is part of the same investigation into the Justice Department's politicization. If Mr. Mukasey is truly interested in restoring credibility to the Department, he will enforce our subpoena rather than obstruct it. If he chooses to block our investigation, he will be protecting those who committed wrongdoing. And that would be no way for our nation's "top law enforcement officer" to behave.

Congresswoman Linda T. Sánchez is the Chairwoman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. She represents the 39th Congressional District of California.

Comments

[kavan]

What do you want us to do, make a citizen's arrest? Get the Speaker to do something about it. The house has enforcement and punishment powers. Use them.

[tc399]

Swear me in as a Congressional Marshal. I'll get Rove and bring him before you. guaranteed. He is not exempted as Bush and Cheney are. NO appointees are exempt.

Now you have the authority, the means, and the method. What is stopping you?

[guntotinganglion]

Actually, it would have been better if they'd simply charged Rove with inherent contempt, and don't waste time sending this to the "Justice" Department. on. Mr. Mukasey is truly not in the least bit interested in restoring credibility to the Department...his only interest is to do what he was contracted to do, protect his owners. He is the lap dog of the American Caligula, and he has proven that multiple times. His obstruction of justice should be an indictable offense in and of itself. Not allowing a grand jury to follow up on this and determine the truth is vile and despicable...and an obstruction of justice, plain and simple.

I mean...the sheer hypocrisy of the Republicans, who sent Bill Clinton himself to appear before a grand jury, which they entrapped him into lying to, is stunningly immoral and unethical. Mukasey is an abomination as AG, far worse than even Alberto Gonzales. Mukasey isn't quite the incompetent idealogue that old Gonzales was, but he is, if anything, even more blindly partisan and contemptuous of the concept of a dispassionate and non-partisan Justice Dept. He will protect Bush and his minions to the end of his term. And there's the answer, the only justice that is possible is once the Justice Dept is back in the hands of non-partisan professionals, rather than sycophantic partisan hacks who have totally politicized the system from top to bottom.

[tcagle]

Use Inherent Contempt, and go after the AG for not doing his job.

[TwoMildreds]

So here's the thing - Mr. Mukasey will do precisely nothing about this, just as he did with the Miers and Bolton contempt citations. That's why this has to be pursued by you and your peers as a charge of INHERENT CONTEMPT and tried by the House. Honest to jeebus, you people are like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football. They're going to pants you again. Don't fall for it.

[syllepsis]

Rep. Sanchez,
If you are truly interested in bringing these crooks to Congress to answer their subpoenas, pursue Inherent Contempt.
We already know what Mukasey will do.

[sdskelton03]

US Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President and can be replaced at any time for any or no reason whatsoever. The only possibility of a crime would be if one of the attorneys was investigating the executive branch and was fired with the intent of halting the investigation.

That is almost impossible to prove.

Let it go.

Rather than chase your political enemies around, why don't you do something about the 400 billion dollar budget deficit, energy independance or anything else that actually matters to the people.

[Economike]

I thought this was about the entire justice department.

[sdskelton03]

To tell you the truth, I kind of lost track myself.

The truth of the matter is that no one really cares anymore. Those people will be out of office in seven months and we should be deciding which way we want to go.

[ReaderTeacherCitizen]

If a man who was not elected to any political office, who is first and only a political operative, can not only punish the US attorneys of his own party, but also use the "professional" and by law non-partisan positions in the Justice Department in his pursuit of a "permanent majority" for his party, then the whole country is in terrible trouble.

The Justice Department can destroy lives, families, careers through investigation and indictment. ASk Don Seigelman. It would be nice to know that men like Rove can't use that tremendous power for their own personal gain or for the gain of their party or their political and financial allies.

[oncethere]

Great phrase, "political tribalism," reflects the primitive functioing of these hacks. Mukassey will make sure that nothing like that happens---- in the next administration, hopefully Obama's. I guarantee Republicans will be screaming at minor, vaguely similar incidents.

The Irony in all this is that Republicans have been whining for years about how liberal judges are politicizing the judicial system. Of course, this is precisely what they have done, in an overt and corrupt way. They are projecting and because they project----in other words, deny their own motives and intentions and attribute them to others---it makes it very difficult to engage in healthy debate with them.

[Economike]

I posted before I read your comment. Hack is certainly the first word that comes to mind when you think of Muckasey.

[Torus34]

These people are well aware of the fact that once they are out of office, they're also out of harm's way as far as possible prosecution is concerned. The unwritten law has always been that if you can get away with it until you're out of office, enjoy! You're home free.

[Economike]

Tony Snow, Robert Novack

[fairwitness]

At least God'll get 'em, eventually, eh? How long can pacemakers and massive wealth stave off the inevitable? An entire country waits for justice. This morning on NPR I heard a report about how nice the accomodations are for war criminals at The Hague--private showers and ping pong, cable and internet. I immediately thought, "that's too good for Bush and his gang".

The health of our national soul requires justice for the criminals currently in office. I wonder if and how it will be delivered.