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The DOJ's Slaughter Of Hope

The Justice Department broke civil service laws and the country's heart by "deselecting" qualified young applicants linked to Democrats or liberal organizations ("weed out the wackos and wack jobs").

It's the saddest news about our great government, we think, since tape on the door locks inside the Watergate Complex led to the most disgraceful exit from the White House in our Republic's history.

No civic betrayals cut deeper those by men and women sworn to protect us, but who instead abuse their power to cut down political opponents. Our real enemies, they forget, are those who confuse the loyal opposition with enemies of the State.

The temptations of power are awesome. We can all fall from grace at any time -- but for grace itself. Still, some news is so dark and disturbing that it weighs upon the spirit. As Ellen Podgor wrote in her blog, "It is pretty frightening to think that the department that will monitor elections has been compromised and continues to be compromised by political hiring practices."

That's right. Who will guard those who are guarding our liberties?

That was yesterday's news. But this morning the sun was still shining and the sky was cloudless and beautiful. Our breakfast fruit hit the spot and it was time to do some chores. We turned to the screen. First stop, the latest enforcement news from the DOJ's fraud site. But the usual businesslike homepage was missing --replaced by a cheerful greeting:

Thank you for visiting the U.S. Department of Justice!

You have been randomly selected to take part in a survey, presented by Foresee Results, to let us know what we are doing well and where we need to do better.

Coincidences are jolting. After we recovered, we began to savor our chance. Forget revenge and retribution, we told ourselves. Just tell it like it is. Give the DOJ some friendly advice about their recent indecencies.

Once you leave this site, the survey will appear in this window. In the meantime, please ignore this window and continue browsing our site in the other window.

Maybe there were too many windows. Maybe we closed something we shouldn't have. Anyway, the survey never appeared. We'd lost our chance.

There was one small dialogue box still open:

ForeSee may disclose personal information in response to a judicial or other government subpoena, warrant or order.

There was that question again. Who will guard those who are guarding our liberties?

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Full post as published by The FCPA Blog on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).