And they call that justice

A New York Times article today summarizes a newly released report "prepared by the Justice Department's inspector general and its internal ethics office." The headline gives away the gist: "Report Faults Aides in Hiring at Justice Dept." Here's the lede graf:

Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broke Civil Service laws by using politics to guide their hiring decisions, picking less-qualified applicants for important nonpolitical positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department's credibility, an internal report concluded on Monday.

And here's a key paragraph, in my estimation:

The pattern appeared most damaging in the hiring of immigration judges, as vacancies were allowed to go unfilled — and a backlog of deportation cases grew — while Mr. Gonzales's aides looked for conservative lawyers to fill what were supposed to be apolitical jobs.

Oh, that's great. Let's put all this essential justice work on hold so that we can get some good ol' "god, guns + gays" Republicans in these positions, regardless of their qualifications. Because, obviously, Democrats, by virtue of their party affiliation, are incapable of demonstrating loyalty to a Republican president.

But this kind of vetting process wasn't exclusive to a circle of White House officials and aides to Alberto Gonzalez. It was contagious among Washington right-wingers during this administration.

When it came to filling the ultimate apolitical position in government, and the decision was twice left up to the president and Congress, it was Republicans who strove to make sure Bush's Supreme Court nominee was sufficiently conservative.

Come on, weren't they aware of the extent to which the White House's Supreme Court appointees had been vetted on that particular issue? They wouldn't think of letting anyone less than conservative slip through the cracks.

How dare the Congressional Republicans second-guess the nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers, an ultimate conservative whose loyalty to the president could never once be questioned, even if her qualifications for sitting on the high court were lacking a bit? Boy, talk about disloyalty to your president. It's called trust, people!