Kos Commenter from the DoJ

Here's a comment made on Kos recently from someone who was appointed at the Department of Justice -- by Bush Sr.

This is so far outside what has happened at DOJ during previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, that it sickens me. I was hired at DOJ in the administration of Bush's father, and there was never so much as a hint of political intereference. I know people who are Democrats, Republicans, independents, and pretty much apolitical who were hired then, as well as in the Clinton administration.

I retired a year and a half ago, and although I was in a part of DOJ that generally attracts little political interest, the atmosphere had already changed, especially from what I heard about the areas of DOJ that attracted more political interest. But even then, it would have been difficult to believe that things were this bad.

The truly mind-boggling thing is that people who should have known better put this wet-behind-the ears zealot in a responsible position to begin with, and then proceeded to let her exercise hitherto unprecedented power while she occupied that position. And if we hadn't elected a Democratic Congresss this past November, none of this would have yet come to light (or if it had, it would have been quietly swept under the rug).

There is this way of running a public agency, and then there is the way that Joseph Curran ran the Maryland Attorney General's office, where I briefly worked as a lawyer. His entire professional staff theoretically served at his pleasure, but his hiring decisions were totally non-political. My time in that office coincided with one of his reelection campaigns, and when he announced, he called all of the attorneys together for a meeting, at which he gave the following instructions:

1. None of us were to donate any money to his campaign;

2. None of us were to volunteer to work on his campaign, or to have any contact with his campaign office, the sole exception being the person who did his scheduling, and then only to assure that scheduling for campaign events and official events didn't conflict; and finally,

3. That if we wanted to help his campaign, the way to do so was to do as good a job as possible serving the interests of the people of Maryland.

THAT'S the way a public agency should be run, and it's pretty much the way DOJ was run until this sorry excuse of an administration. The political appointees during the administration of Bush's father were certainly largely Republicans, but they were overwhelmingly Republicans who understood that, once they took their oath of office as government officials, they were serving the people of the United States, not the narrow interests of the Republican Party. And the same is true of the political appointees in the Clinton administration, who overwhelmingly realized that, while they were Democrats, as public officials, they were serving the interests of the people of the United States, rather than the narrow interests of the Democratic Party.

The last few years have been a sad time for the Department of Justics, and for the United States. But hopefully, this will prove to be a temporary aberration and contary to Mr. Comey's prediction, the genie will be able to be put back into the bottle.