Gonzales.
Saw a really neat interview with Daniel Metcalfe, formerly the director of the Office of Information and Privacy at the Department of Justice. It centers around the current mess the DOJ is in, and is filled with the sort of candor that only retirement can bring. For me, it dropped some pieces into place that finally make sense of the whole mess: it’s not a vast right-wing conspiracy, it’s not dozens of people lying about overt political firings, it’s just drastically bad mismanagement coupled with reckless self-interest.
Metcalfe was a career attorney who’d worked in the DOJ since the Nixon administration, and he says there were ups and downs over the years, but in terms of politicizing the department, “nothing compares to the past two years under Alberto Gonzales.” Two themes caught my attention:
…there was an almost immediate influx of young political aides beginning in the first half of 2005…whose inexperience in the processes of government was surpassed only by their evident disdain for it…
…that strong tradition of independence over the previous 30 years was shattered in 2005 with the arrival of the White House counsel as a second-term AG. All sworn assurances to the contrary notwithstanding, it was as if the White House and Justice Department now were artificially tied at the hip — through their public affairs, legislative affairs and legal policy offices, for example, as well as where you ordinarily would expect such a connection (i.e., Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel). I attended many meetings in which this total lack of distance became quite clear, as if the current crop of political appointees in those offices weren’t even aware of the important administration-of-justice principles that they were trampling.
So, again, appointments made on the basis of loyalty, rather than competence. Holy Christ I am getting sick of that one. This, in turn, requires people under those appointments to emphasize management’s pre-conceived correct results, rather than fact-based results. I mean, anyone who ever had an ass-kissing boss knows how that goes. But that’s one thing if you’re working for a company that makes plastic forks. How much more friggin’ scary is that when it’s the United States Department of Justice.
And then, how the whole decision-making culture has shifted:
But the process of agency functioning, however, became dramatically different almost immediately after Gonzales arrived. No longer was emphasis placed on accomplishing something with the highest-quality product in a timely fashion; rather, it became a matter of making sure that a “consensus” was achieved, regardless of how long that might take and with little or no concern that quality would suffer in such a “lowest common denominator” environment. And heaven help anyone, career or noncareer employee, if that “consensus” did not include whatever someone in the White House might think about something, be it large, small or medium-sized.
Sure, the White House touched everything they did, because they weren’t there because of their own competence, they were there because somebody upstairs liked them. And they were inexperienced, so they didn’t risk taking responsibility for anything…and thus diffused decisions, and that responsibility, out to “the group”.
This is why you get Kyle Sampson saying he didn’t make a list, he was just “the aggregator” of that list. It’s why you simultaneously get Sampson saying Gonzales was involved, and Gonzales saying he wasn’t. They’re both, in a way, telling the truth. Gonzales was there, he might have discussed it, but from his point of view, it wasn’t him, it was “the group”.
I’d say ultimately the responsibility here is with the President for appointing him, but of course the only way anything’s going to happen to him is by waiting a year and a half. But Gonzales is responsible for creating this atmosphere at the DOJ. Unfortunately, now I don’t think anything is going to come out of this investigation as a clear criminal act, because cultural breakdowns are a lot harder to define and describe as a clear failing of management.
But regardless of that, I am astonished they’re fighting this hard to keep Gonzales in. Previous political appointees have resigned for far, far less. Especially when he’s the Attorney General, I mean…the business of justice has to be based on trust. We don’t need a “let’s fire these judges because they don’t like Bush” email; the body of work we’ve seen so far makes it clear that the DOJ is currently broken.
This distills down to what we already knew–Bush is a charismatic but incompetent CEO who advances on the strength of his connections rather than his results. I’m now irritated that his presidency is more often viewed through a politcal lens, rather than judging him on his merits. He doesn’t suck because he’s a Republican, he sucks because he sucks. But given how he (and therefore, his organization) rewards loyalty, I guess I can see why people in his party have a hard time seeing that.
Oh, hell, and you know what…I think I’ve just answered my earlier question. This is why they’re fighting for Gonzales–because if he goes, that means you can’t count on Bush’s loyalty. And without his loyalty, what’s left?
