"What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?"
This is one of the offensive and illegal questions that former Justice Department employee Monica Goodling asked job applicants before she made the decision to hire or not hire them.
There are others, according to the just released investigation by the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility titled "An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring by Monica Goodling and Other Staff in the Office of the Attorney General."
In addition to discussing the applicants' views of gay marriage and abortion, Goodling asked:
"Why are you a Republican?"
"Tell us about your political philosophy. There are different groups of conservatives, by way of example: Social Conservative, Fiscal Conservative, Law & Order Republican."
"Aside from the President, give us an example of someone currently or recently in public service who you admire."
It is, of course illegal to politicize the Justice Department and to hire employees based on political philosophy, but the first question of Monica Goodling not only show that she violated the law, it shows she is a moronic sycophant, a Republican Monica Lewinsky (how interesting that they share the same name), ready to serve the president and demanding that anyone she hires serve him as well.
The first part of the question: "What is it about George W. Bush" implies that the job applicant is only there to be a toady of the president, that he or she only applied for the job because he or she is as enthralled, enchanted, and infatuated by the president as she is. Isn't it possible that someone wants the job because they want the experience, they believe in justice and the Constitutution, or that it is a step to something grander? Why must it be something about George W. Bush that has brought them to apply for a job? Because Monica Goodling has stars in her eyes, hero worships this inadequate man and thinks that must be what everyone else thinks?
The second part of the question "that makes you want to serve him" also smacks of hero worship. People don't work at the Justice Department to "serve the president." These were not, I believe, presidential appointments where one "seves at the pleasure of the president." They were career department positions, which should have nothing to do with one's political affiliation or even loyalty to any single president. As career appointees they would serve under many presidents, of both parties, which is why politics should never enter into their hiring.
Career employees serve at the Justice Department in order to preserve the Constitution and carry out its laws to the best of their ability. This nation, as is often said, is a nation of laws, not of men, and nowhere is this a more important principle than in the Justice Department, where those laws are enforced.
The fact that someone who worked for George W. Bush could be as sycophantic, as empty-headed and ignorant, as this woman is simply another reflection of the man she "serves." The fact that she would "serve him" by breaking the law so casually, so willingly, only shows us one more example of how much damage to the Constitution and to the rule of law this administration has done.
Monica Goodling is worse than another young woman, with the same first name, who used to fawn over a president. Monica Goodling is even more contemptible than Monica Lewinsky. At least Bill Clinton was smart enough not to give her the task of hiring anyone. And at least she didn't subvert the Constitution.
