Federal government: January 2009 Archives

A few days back, I was writing about the latest flap at the Justice Department, and the local connection in the person of York County native Monica Goodling.

Well, Ms. Goodling just got a reference in "The Progress Report," published by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank "Center for American Progress." They included her on a list of the 43 worst Bush administration appointees.

Numbers one through five on the list are, respectively, Vice President Dick Cheney, presidential advisor Karl Rove, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (Ms. Goodling's former boss), former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former FEMA director Michael Brown (of "heckuva job, Brownie" fame).

Ms. Goodling herself came in at number 20 -- below the aforementioned Bush officials, but ahead of White House Counsel Harriet Miers (whe came in at number 26).

Of course, the Center for American Progress is headed by John Podesta, Bill Clinton's former chief of staff, so it's a safe bet they were never fans of the Bush administration to begin with. A Bush loyalist such as Ms. Goodling might consider herself to be in good company on that list.

Here's the link, if you want to read it:

http://pr.thinkprogress.org/

More dire news came from the U.S. Justice Department this week.

It seems that Bradley Schlozman, the former justice Department official charged with enforcing civil rights laws, favored conservatives for certain posts and refused to hire liberals. He wasn't exactly subtle about this -- referring to conservatives as "right-thinking Americans" and liberals as "commies."

Have I mentioned that he was in charge of enforcing civil rights laws? These findings by the department's inspector general are roughly equivalent to the country's drug czar getting busted while scoring crack.