On Monday, the Justice Department confirmed, that under the reign of error of former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, the once-proud, once-professional Justice Department became a refuge for partisans and cronies, hired by scoundrels, and overseen by leaders who purposely turned a blind eye to the illegal machinations of their subordinates.

In other words…….The Bush Administration!

According to today’s report by the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), former Justice Department lawyer, Monica Goodling conducted detailed “Internet research on candidates for Department positions…designed to obtain their political and ideological affiliations.”

The damning report titled, “An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring by Monica Goodling and Other Staff in the Office of the Attorney General” that establishes for all time that former Justice officials Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson, and others, violated federal law and Department policy when they "improperly considered political or ideological affiliations in screening candidates for certain career positions" at Justice. Over and over again, these lawyers and public servants put their ideological goals over the work of the nation.

The audacity of this woman is almost beyond belief until you remember that she was operating in the “Bizarro World” of George Bush. I’ll let Keith Olbermann give you an overview of the whole story in this video.

While screening candidates for the selection of immigration judges, who work in the Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, Goodling used a variety of techniques for determining their political affiliation, including researching their political contributions and voter registration records, using the Internet to separate liberals from conservations.

A supreme irony is that In Goodling’s world, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be too liberal because "she’s pro choice" and would have been rejected in the first round.

Apparently drawing on the experience she gained working inside the newly created war room for political opposition research for the RNC, Goodling used the Internet to screen candidates for affiliations or statements related to conservative flash points. The search string included such affiliations as homosexuality, abortion, and the 2000 Florida recount. This is the search that Goodling entered into the LexisNexis database to research job candidates:

According to the report, Goodling also used “www.tray.com and other web sites to get information about political contributions made by candidates.” and used that information to weed out those candidates that she would determine to be less than loyal to the cause.

All of the activities described above are totally illegal!

As I write, Congress is looking into charging Monica Goodling and other with perjury among other things.

In my opinion Goodling and her kind is one of the fundamental cancers that threaten America, Americans and the democracy that so many have sacrificed to build and maintain. I cannot speak strongly enough about those that believe that their way is “the way” and that anything thing they do to ensure that to be so is OK and excusable.