December 4, 2009
Hard data about politicization of the DOJ under Bush
There was no mention of the GOP’s favorite boogeymen, ACORN and the Black Panthers in a recently released report on the Bush Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. Instead, the report focused on the Bush administration’s disinclination to actively pursue the recommendations of career DOJ attorneys. Take a look at this one egregious example: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/us/politics/03rights.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
When the Bush administration ran the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, career lawyers wanted to look into accusations that officials in one state had illegally intimidated blacks during a voter-fraud investigation.
But division supervisors refused to “approve further contact with state authorities on this matter,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office auditing the activities of the division from 2001 to 2007. Read the rest of this entry »
June 19, 2008
‘I was working for the Sith lords:’ fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias
Because he refused to prosecute bogus “voter fraud” cases in New Mexico, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was fired by the Bush Administration. A dyed-in-wool Republican, Iglesias was disillusioned by the politization of the DOJ under John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales.
In a recent appearance on Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart Iglesias won audience applause by referencing characters in Star Wars movies:
“I thought I was working with the Jedi Knights and I was working for the Sith Lords.”
The video is from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, broadcast June 16, 2008. Find it here: http://rawstory.com/news08/2008/06/17/fired-us-attorney-i-was-working-for-the-sith-lords/
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