Those aren’t my words; that’s what Attorney General Michael Mukasey called the behavior of Boy Blunder’s inJustice Department. And he called the behavior disturbing at a speech before the American Bar Association. Here’s the money quote:

“As I expect you know, the Justice Department’s own Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility recently released two joint reports about hiring practices at the Department in and before early 2007. The reports included detailed findings that improper political considerations had been used in hiring decisions relating to certain career employees, including Immigration Judges, some Assistant United States Attorneys, and employees detailed to offices in Main Justice, and in hiring decisions relating to candidates for the prestigious Attorney General Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program.

The conduct described in those reports is disturbing. The mission of the Justice Department is the evenhanded application of the Constitution and the laws enacted under it. That mission has to start with the evenhanded application of the laws within our own Department. Some people at the Department deviated from that strict standard, and the institution failed to stop them.

I want to stress that last point because there is no denying it: the system failed. The active wrong-doing detailed in the two joint reports was not systemic in that only a few people were directly implicated in it. But the failure was systemic in that the system – the institution – failed to check the behavior of those who did wrong. There was a failure of supervision by senior officials in the Department. And there was a failure on the part of some employees to cry foul when they were aware, or should have been aware, of problems. (emphasis added) ( US Dep’t of Justice)

Two points, from the ol’ TwoPutter:

1. It’s a good thing the AG is recognizing the problem, but:
2. He’s BLAMING THE EMPLOYEES??!?

Say, Mukasey? Remember a girl named Valerie? Valerie Plame? What did this misAdministration do, when hubby stood tall and told the truth??!?

The Plunderers in the misAdministration put people’s lives at risk ’cause hubby blew the whistle – what makes anyone think that career Justice Dep’t employees didn’t take note, and wonder what THEIR fate might be?

Sorry – the ol’ TwoPutter ain’t buyin’ this Thema Culpa by Gonzo’s stand-in.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you shouldn’t either. If Mukasey was serious about career employees standin’ up, he’d have announced a program to cover their back when they did. He didn’t; he isn’t.

And since he’s sandbaggin’ the problems his boss, Boy Blunder, created – what else is he sandbaggin’?

Oh – and a H/T to Tony Mauro at LegalTimes for bringin’ this latest pile of horse(apples) from the misAdministration of Bush The Lesser to my attention.

(originally published at MnBlue.com)