Conyers: "We take allegations like this one very seriously"

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003081.php

DoJ Lawyer: Controversial Prosecutor Played Politics at Department
By Paul Kiel - April 24, 2007, 3:07 PM

When Ty Clevenger, a line attorney in the Civil Rights Division, forwarded a friend's resume to deputy division chief Bradley Schlozman, he was expecting questions about his friend's experience as a lawyer. But what Schlozman wanted to know, according to Clevenger, was whether his friend was a Republican.

Clevenger, a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, told Schlozman that his friend was conservative. He just wasn't sure how active his friend was politically. The friend never got an interview.

It's the most direct account yet of politicization at the Justice Department. There have been many other signs -- and not just the administration's preference for "loyal Bushies" as U.S. attorneys. Last week, a group of anonymous Justice Department employees wrote to the House and Senate judiciary committees to complain about politicization in the department's hiring process. The deputy attorney general's office, they alleged, was screening department applicants to eliminate Democrats.

"We take allegations like this one very seriously," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) told me, reacting to Clevenger's account. "Specific to the Civil Rights Division, we are investigating complaints of politicization both in hiring and prosecutions. The Justice Department is not the place for this type of political cronyism, and we will get to the bottom of it."

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I wonder how far back the politicizing goes. I interviewed to work in the DOJ's criminal tax department in 2004 - at the time, I was completing an LLM in tax (a degree beyond my basic law JD) and had a sterling record (law school and undergrad cum laude, top 10% at law school, managing editor of law review, plus 4 distinguished years in the Marine Corps - including a purple heart). But I also had several "liberal", "red" flags on my resume, including many years of work at a lefty nonprofit and a recommendation from a state judge who had worked in Carter's DOJ.

I suppose that if I had gotten the job, my desire to investigate wealthy taxcheats wouldn't have been popular anyway.

be grateful.

These positions are the so-called "career prosecutor" jobs and are, by design, non-partisan.

While I'm not unhappy with the career trajectory I ended up with, working for the DOJ, even under the tortureczar, would have been a nice profession-enhancer.

there might be a different admin by then. (Fingers crossed!)