What Outrages the Public?

Today we have the report on the Justice Department's hiring practices for its staff Honors Program and its Summer Internship Program. We learned that hiring decisions for these programs, which historically had been made by staff, career lawyers, were taken over by political appointees. The result? Rhodes Scholars, Ivy League graduates, law review editors, and other top candidates were routinely rejected if they had affiliations with Democratic or "left-leaning" organizations such as the Nature Conservancy and Greenpeace. Their places were filled with applicants whose major qualification seemed to be fealty to the Bush administration and conservative causes. Never mind whether the taxpayers were served by the best public employees available, or whether cases involving the Justice Department were staffed by competent lawyers.

This is nothing less than a full, frontal assault on the integrity and independence of the legal system by the completely politicized Bush Administration. It's another example of the breathtaking arrogance and disregard of democratic institutions engineered by the dunce-in-chief and his puppetmaster Karl Rove.

It will be interesting to see whether there is any sense of outrage from the public over this report. I expect there won't be a peep, as the public saves its anger for things that really matter, like whether Barack Obama wears a flag lapel pin or has a wild-eyed minister.