07/29/2008
Report Concludes Department of Justice Engaged in Anti-Gay Bias
Back in April I reported that the Department of Justice was looking into the possible firing of an employee for her sexual orientation as part of a larger investigation into the firings of U.S. attorneys under Alberto Gonzalez. At the center of the investigation was Gonzalez' senior counsel Monica Goodling.
The investigation has found that Goodling used a LexisNexis search string used to conduct opposition research for the RNC in order to screen possible candidates for career department positions.
This is the search string:
"[First name of a candidate]! and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!"
According to the report, "[Goodling] exercised what amounted to veto power over a wide range of critical jobs, asking candidates for their views on abortion and same-sex marriage, and maneuvering around senior officials who outranked her, including the department's second-in-command....Thirty-four candidates told investigators that Goodling or one of her deputies raised the topic of abortion in job interviews and 21 said they discussed same-sex marriage, the report said. Another job applicant said he admired Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, only to watch Goodling 'frown' and respond, 'But she's prochoice.'"
Justice Dept. report concludes aides broke law [boston globe]
Goodling Screened DOJ Career Candidates For Affiliations With ‘Abortion, Homosexuality, Iraq and WMD’ [think progress]
An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring by Monica Goodling and Other Staff in the Office of the Attorney General [pdf]
Posted 10:00 AM EST by Andy Towle in Alberto Gonzales, Crime, Discrimination, George W. Bush, Monica Goodling, News | Permalink
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Why do you find it necessary to question the excellent operations of our glorious leader's government. Certainly he knows better than we and we should be thankful that he maintains purity and excellence throughout his imperial regime.
PS: jail the bitches!
Posted by: Tyler | Jul 29, 2008 10:10:13 AM
God bless Monica. The Führer is proud.
"or cun!"
Posted by: John in Manhattan | Jul 29, 2008 10:16:04 AM
OK, this where the gay Republican can shout, pout, and scream about their rights to vote Republican then insult the evil "libruls."
Idiots! A vote for McCain is vote for people like this! The Rethugs are so tightly entwined with the ultra fundies that the Rethugs have allowed fundies to set hiring and firing policies and determine what is acceptable science based on fundie beliefs. (Evolution? Pfah! The earth is only 5,000 years old. Sure, there are stars that are 100,000 light years from Earth but God stretched the light to make look that way. Wha???)
Posted by: noah | Jul 29, 2008 10:31:15 AM
I am vehemently against the death penalty, and yet I find myself plagued by one thought: "Fry the bitch."
Posted by: david | Jul 29, 2008 10:37:55 AM
Noah, I would venture a guess that I am far more open minded to candidates, regardless of party, than you. I would probably go so far as to say that I am in general more open minded than you in general. However, I say that without knowing you so I am always cautious to make generalizations.
Having said that, be careful when you make broad sweeping generalizations about a group of people. I try very hard not to say all "liberuls" are anything. It is a shame that so many of us refuse to fight for what we believe in and simply follow the way of the heard. Further, just because I came out of the closet did not mean I left my brain behind. Just be careful painting "all" gay repubs in with the same brush. It shows your shallowness and I know that you are smarter than that. At least you appear to be from your posts.
Posted by: RB | Jul 29, 2008 10:41:38 AM
Speaking with an open mind and from knowledge, gay Republicans have shit for brains.
Posted by: John in Manhattan | Jul 29, 2008 10:49:09 AM
RB,
Here's a broad sweeping generalization perhaps you might give us the honor of addressing...
Why are all gay Rebublicans such smug douchebags?
Posted by: crispy | Jul 29, 2008 10:51:15 AM
Wasn’t it patently obvious that Monica was in it up to her little Aryan blue eyes from the beginning? Her immediate invocation of the fifth amendment should have been enough of a clue for everyone to know just how much Justice had actually been perpetrated at Justice in the last 8 years. Maybe one day someone will actually go to jail over all the crimes this administration has committed. I can only hope.
Posted by: Sean | Jul 29, 2008 10:56:22 AM
If you are gay and vote Republican you are a fool.
Posted by: Strepsi | Jul 29, 2008 11:00:56 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/monica-goodling-one-of-1_b_44588.html
"Goodling's involvement in Attorneygate is not the only aspect of her role in the Bush administration that bears examination. Her membership in a cadre of 150 graduates of Pat Robertson's Regent University currently serving in the administration is another, equally revealing component of the White House's political program.
Goodling earned her law degree from Regent, an institution founded by Robertson "to produce Christian leaders who will make a difference, who will change the world." Helping to purge politically disloyal federal prosecutors is just one way Goodling has helped fulfill Robertson's revolutionary goals."
Posted by: John in Manhattan | Jul 29, 2008 11:04:06 AM
It's not a sweeping generalization to say that this woman, an obedient pawn in a Justice Department run by Republicans, was trying to weed out gay people (among others), like us. And it's not a sweeping generalization to say that John McCain, a Republican running on the Republican platform, is on record saying that gay people are not worthy of parenting children. I think the carefulness should come in the voting booth, when we have the chance to make sure people like this--yes, Republicans--are not the powers that be.
Posted by: Ernie | Jul 29, 2008 11:04:13 AM
Being a leader requires using the bully pulpit to promote your plan, and delegating responsibilty to members of your administration to follow through on your plan. That's what George W did. The American people got what the deserved in Bush and his cronies. Now, I hope they feel they deserve better. It's time to reject the Republican Party. They had their chance; they fucked up...big time.
RB,
your Republican Party was hijacked by unscrupulous men and women for the last 7 years(maybe since 1978). I don't know when the Chuck Hagels and Charles Grasleys and Olympia Snows will ever get their party back. Right now, John McCain seems to be courting those George the Idiot folks who gave us the Nazi gal in the picture above.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Jul 29, 2008 11:30:38 AM
What a joke.
Posted by: Mike | Jul 29, 2008 11:40:30 AM
RB,
i don't know which to disdain more, you or the party you apparently support. but in general, if i were to generalize about generalizing, i think that some things are salient. further, i would choose to disdain more the complacent sissies that hand the nooses to their executioners, generally speaking of course.
alberto gonzales and all his flunkies should be thrown in jail.
Posted by: nic | Jul 29, 2008 12:03:41 PM
It's generally more of a scandal when crimes aren't prosecuted than when they are. It's better to ask what cases they declined to pursue.
Posted by: anon | Jul 29, 2008 12:33:12 PM
All that can happen to her is that she'll lose her job. Oh fuck... she already quit.
Posted by: kansastock | Jul 29, 2008 1:55:38 PM
No one completely and wholeheartly agrees with every single stance for any party memeber, or party in particular. Even their own. It all comes down to priorities. The republican party does not have securing gay rights as one of theirs, but just because you're gay doesnt mean you have to put that before all your other beliefs and what you think would be best for you.
Any vote for anyone is a gamble and a weighting of probable pros and cons. If you want to vote and are aware that realistically the party or person you put forth has their or agenda, then do it. No party is completely clean or dirty, and just because someone shouts with the volumn of a thousand people it doesnt mean they speak for them
And did anyone else notice that they had spotted owls in their search string? What the hell is that about?
Posted by: Rhys | Jul 29, 2008 1:55:56 PM
Not all Republicans are bad, you can't make broad generalizations, the Democrats are wimps, Barack Obama is arrogant, blah blah blah. Gay or straight, if you want you CONSTITUTION back, you cannot vote for a Republican. Period. End of sentence. Maybe in ten or twenty years, they will get their heads out of their asses and stop LYING, but until then, you're stuck with the less than stellar, mealy-mouthed, compromising, corporate Democrats. No. They are not great. Far from it. They give in too quickly. They poll everyone. They try to please everyone and end up pleasing no one. But give me that over these criminal Republicans any day.
Posted by: TroyTooner | Jul 29, 2008 2:39:10 PM
There was a time where I could see a gay person prefer the platform of the Republican party. Limited government, fiscal conservatism, anti-interventionalism, decentralized government, strict constitutionalism, limits of power of the federal government. Your Sullivan-style gay conservatives, I suppose.
That time is long past. If any of those points of conservatism were things one looked to the Republican party to promote, then the party has objectively failed you. And it sold its soul in the process.
Too, the party that elevates such rhetoric about "individual liberty" curently refuses to acknowledge gay people as deserving of said liberty, thus denying gay people *any* voice in their own governing. "Neither seen nor heard."
There may come a day when the GOP reduces the bigotry-as-campaign-propaganda and bigotry-as-platform to Democratic Party levels (or better), and allow themselves to get back to conservatism's roots. But until that happens, and until they can also purge the strain of facts-be-damned authoritarianism they've fallen over themsleves to embrace, they are going to be in the wilderness for a long while.
Posted by: AG | Jul 29, 2008 3:29:28 PM
BITCH needs to get disbarred. STAT!
Posted by: donsnyc | Jul 29, 2008 5:54:27 PM
Well, I am going to make a sweeping generalization. ALL gay and lesbian and transgender (yup) republicans are traitors to our community. And please spare me the 'I am only a republican for fiscal reasons!' Like the republican party over the last 20 years has been fiscally responsible. Ha! The only time we haven't been in a budget deficit was during the Clinton years. Every gay republican I've meet has been more elitist, more interested in their own pocketbook, and generally unconcerned about most of the social ills that queers also suffer. Homeless? 'Get a job!' HIV+? 'It's your damn fault!' Poor? 'Get a second job!' Struggling to pay the rent? 'You're outta here!' Transgendered? 'Sick, twisted, pervert! Fight your own wars!'
Posted by: Mr. E | Jul 29, 2008 7:29:38 PM
I hope that DOJ has the balls that toxic bitch Goodling in jail. Who the f*ck does the moron think she is?
Posted by: CK | Jul 30, 2008 5:39:34 PM
... sorry that should be: "... the balls to throw that toxic bitch Goodling in jail".
Ah, that felt good to say, even the second time :-)
Posted by: CK | Jul 30, 2008 5:41:16 PM