Brad Schlozman testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 5, 2007. According to the Justice Department investigation, Schlozman bragged about hiring "real Americans." AP
A U.S. Attorney is a political job, appointed by the President and subject to confirmation by the Senate. In March of 2006, President Bush signed into law the Patriot Act, which changed procedures. In effect, his Attorney General could now appoint an interim U.S. Attorney. As long as the President didn’t nominate anyone else for the position, this interim appointee could remain indefinitely. Good-by checks and balances.
Now, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, except a U.S. Attorney decides who is prosecuted in his District and for what crimes. If, for example, there is a tight Senate race in Missouri, and ACORN is out there registering voters or whatever, the U.S. Attorney could announce voter fraud indictments just before the election. This just might have an impact on the election. George Bush certainly knows the value of a helping hand when it comes to close elections.
Bradley Scholzman was acting head of the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department under Roberto Gonzalez, who appointed him interim U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. He replaced Todd Graves, who confirmed that he had been forced out by the Department of Justice and had not departed on his own initiative.
A Justice Department investigation has concluded that Schlozman illegally hired attorneys based on partisan credentials and then lied about his actions to Congress. The report quotes e-mails to colleagues in which Schlozman called civil rights attorneys “pinkos” and “commies.” He bragged about hiring “real Americans” and “bitch-slapping a bunch of attorneys” he perceived as liberal. In one voice mail to a colleague, Schlozman tried to justify hiring people with no record of civil rights experience. “I just want to make sure we don’t start confining ourselves to, you know, politburo members because they happen to be a member of some, you know, psychopathic left-wing organization designed to overthrow the government,” Schlozman said.
Schlozman’s spokesman, Mark Corallo, cautioned, “Let’s not confuse inartful comments with breaking the law.” Yeah, and let’s not Bradley Schlozman with a lab rat. There are some things a lab rat won’t do, even for the President.
In the presidential election process one side constantly used the old fear inducing stand-byes …commie, pinko, liberal, etc., to describe their opponent. As someone who lived through the end of the Cold War with Russia, and watched communism as a global threat get stabbed in the heart and die, I took offence to all this name calling. An entire generation has no meaningful understanding what it is, or who vile politicos like Joseph McCarthy are, or the lives they destroyed by calling and labeling people “communists.” I’m tired of being told by self proclaimed “patriots” they are the only ones who loves their country, and if you don’t agree with them, you are now one of the Buger Men behind every tree, to be despised and …most importantly, feared. (Be afraid. Be very afraid. Whatever you do, live in fear) It insults one’s intelligence. Thankfully, name calling and fear tactics didn’t prevail. Aren’t their enough legitimate issues to be afraid of or concerned about? Maybe, but I’ll be the judge of what scares me.
Isn’t use of fear to accomplish political goals characteristic of a terrorist organization?