NEWS: Turn The DOJ Into A Husk

POLITICS: Turn The DOJ Into A Husk

It’s hard to figure out the worst George Bush accomplishment. It’s a smorgasbord of horrors. The Iraq War is obviously up there, as is the slaughter of the economy. But, for me, it’s the rule of law. Without law, we cannot function as a democracy. The depth of shameful decisions throughout our justice system is staggering. Obama is facing a very ugly task in trying to clean up the Department of Justice because it has been turned into a tank of unqualified, partisan, religious nuts.

This summer, the Office Of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility at the Department of Justice issued a joint report about the Department of Justice’s hiring program under Bush. Turns out, it was not so great.

This is my personal favorite.

Destroyed. Papers destroyed at the Department of Justice before an investigation began! That’s not a good thing for the guys who are enforcing the law to do, right?

Now, due to this flawed hiring process, the Department of Justice is full of clowns. Monica Goodling was the religious nut selected to do the hiring. She is a graduate of Regent University and she hired people from Regent University.

Hello, theocracy! The rules for hiring were changed by Ashcroft and Gonzalez, in order to make it easier to hire fools nobody else wanted. And fools they got.

So, now Obama faces a serious situation. The Department of Justice has been turned into a partisan organization, broken the law and is full of unqualified religious nuts. It should be cleaned out like a pumpkin (and a smiley face carved into the side).

But that creates other problems. Morale usually isn’t helped by a gutting. Also, it’s not the idiot’s fault for being hired by another idiot and some of them may have actually become okay at their job. I doubt it, but it’s possible. Those who came to the Department of Justice to push their ideological agenda will not last, anyway. The rule of law and non-partisanship will return and they will not like that change. They will be driven out because they will not want to work at a job that suddenly restricts the abuse they have become accustomed to inflicting.

Even with all those reasons, Obama should gut the place. Everyday those tools remain is another day the Justice Department is on the wrong track. Too much damage has been done to repair it slowly. Because of what the Bush administration has done, the job may not be the best resume builder for young attorneys anymore. The longer the rot stays, the harder it will be to rebuild the DOJ’s reputation. A massive firing could possibly change that quickly. And besides, it ain't exactly a party up in that bitch now.

Hopefully, the tools will bail on their own and turn it into a husk. An Obama Department of Justice will look very different. We already know he will resurrect the obliterated Voting Section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. Earlier this year, Obama "derailed" former Voting Section head Hans von Spakovsky’s move to the FEC.

He no likey. I could give a shit if the next Attorney General is a liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican. I’d just like him or her to actually give a shit about the law, because it’s been eight years since we had that.

Whoever Obama picks has to investigate warrantless wiretapping, figure out the legal status of the kids at Guantanamo, torture, the firings of US attorneys and quite a lot of other Bush administration bullshit. Having the Regent idiots around when trying to do that may not be the best idea.


FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. Check back each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for more from FearTheReaper and read his blog, Stop All Monsters.

I almost feel bad that Obama won, he's got a huge heap of shit to shovel through.

Let's say he does great over his first term with undoing Bush horseshit and gets reelected. Would it be asking too much to dissolve the Department of Homeland Security and merge its duties with the Department of Defense? You know, since Homeland Security is just a bureaucratic way to say "Defense" anyway?

How about we keep the DHS and change the name of the DoD to the Department of the Military or something simlair. I'm not at all convinced that the creation of the DHS has necessarily been a bad thing--having incompetents running it: yes--but not in theory. Why should the military be in charge of civilian police organizations?

I helped "hire" Obama BECAUSE I am willing to believe that he can clean up the mess. When he is inaugurated into office I think his careful deliberation on these many issues will have payed off and we'll have a set of carefully crafted decisions that not only clean up the mess, but do it in a way that heals the great divides that fragment the nation and the government.

I have very, very little doubt that there is about to be a bloodbath at the DoJ.

I really hope Leahy is the one holding the axe.

I would not want that job but I am glad I saw this article. It makes me feel un-isolated about the non biased principles that have been taking place within the DOJ, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies playing judge, jury and executioner without any regards to what it means for them to have to serve within the same confines of the law they swore to uphold.

I actually filed charges against some clowns but it was brushed aside because of the very idiots you are talking about.

I love this country but the DOJ, in part due to the tough nature of the shit they wade through everyday, become somewhat complacent when it comes to the need to prosecute their own if they step outside the law.

With that there is no justice, no America... It takes all 3 branches being impartial to its citizens regardless of race, religion or lifestyle to function correctly.

I am not perfect and I can accept mistakes, but if you lie cheat and steal (in this case our civil liberties, our freedom of speech, our right to assemble, etc. etc.) to keep those mistakes quiet, the fundamental idea of Democracy is undermined.

I wish there was a way to coherently explain just how badly Bush and Cheney have fucked this country's government up for the last eight years in a concise way that every person in the country could understand, because it's literally top to bottom. No matter whether you personally lean liberal or conservative, these guys ran the worst, most dishonest, incompetent, self-centered, partisan, criminal administration in modern history, with absolutely no respect for any law, tradition, or article of the constitution that got in their way.

How is anything that Bush did "conservative"?

The Ministry of Peace?

But I agree; I'm not a big fan of the military being in charge of civilian organizations.

Though I suppose I really just want it to be done competently.

Anyway, in respect to Obama cleaning out the DoJ, would the dismissals be on partisan grounds, and we'd more or less be back where we started? Although I suspect the people hired under previous policy will give plenty of reasons to be fired for incompetence.

Gut it, baby!

I admire your optimism.

All of the cabinet departments need a long hard look, none are remotely effective right now. No need to get in a big hurry and create a counter-mess, most of what we have was the result of knee-jerk reactions based on bad information.