OPINION
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In Politicizing Justice, 'Appalling' Betrayal
By injecting politics into hiring, Gonzales & Co. shatter public's faith
By Kevin Spak
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Posted Jul 29, 08 12:30 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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New confirmation that the Justice Department used political criteria in hiring for career positions shouldn’t just outrage the maybe-liberals they discriminated against, derailing careers because they were gay, say, or had a wife who was a Democrat, a former Clinton administration official writes in the Washington Post. It’s a major blow against the entire institution, argues Jamie Gorelick.
In a long career representing people being investigated by Justice, she writes, she was able to assure clients that they wrould receive impartial treatment. That confidence "hinged on both the public perception—and reality—that the career assistant US attorneys, line prosecutors and lawyers who work at the department are picked on their merits and proceed without regard to politics.” In perverting this system, she writes, “thus was the department's fundamental promise to the American people broken.”