No Prosecution in US Attorney Firings

Mukasey Won’t Pursue Charges in Hiring Inquiry - NYTimes.com

Attorney General Mukasey has decided violators of public trust and Civil Service law deserve no further attention:

As last month’s report from the inspector general acknowledged, the hiring abuses by former Justice Department officials represented a violation of federal Civil Service law, but not of criminal law, he said.

“That does not mean, as some people have suggested, that those officials who were found by the joint reports to have committed misconduct have suffered no consequences,” Mr. Mukasey said. “Far from it. The officials most directly implicated in the misconduct left the department to the accompaniment of substantial negative publicity.”

“Their misconduct has now been laid bare by the Justice Department for all to see,” he said, adding that “I doubt that anyone in this room would want to trade places with any of those people.”

I might have taken that a little more seriously if "the officials" had actually been named. But apart from Monica Goodling who else does Mukasey mean? Alberto Gonzales?

Barack-Rolled?

It was inevitable, I suppose.

Now if someone could do this for John McCain. . .

The Continuing Decline of the Radical Right

Hutchinson News Online

Tony Perkins and his Family Research Council PAC lost another couple in Kansas, of all places:

The Kansas Traditional Republican Majority questioned the links former U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun and Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline had to a socially conservative group, the Family Research Council Action.

The moderate group claimed the FRCA's executive director, Tony Perkins, had once collaborated with a member of the Ku Klux Klan while running a Louisiana political campaign in 1996. Perkins and the council have denied the charges.

Still, the FRCA had endorsed Ryun and hosted Kline at a conference, said Ryan Wright, the moderate group's executive director. The pair, who both lost Tuesday, should have explained themselves, he argued.

That pesky link between Perkins and David Duke just won't go away.

in 2002, Perkins embarked on a campaign to avenge his mentor's defeat by running for the US Senate himself. But Perkins was dogged with questions about his involvement with David Duke. Perkins issued a flat denial that he had ever had anything to do with Duke, and he denounced him for good measure. Unfortunately, Perkins's signature was on the document authorizing the purchase of Duke's list. Perkins's dalliance with the racist Council of Conservative Citizens in the run-up to his campaign also illuminates the seamy underside of his political associations. Despite endorsements from James Dobson and a host of prominent CNP members, Perkins was not even the leading Republican in the senatorial race.

60 Years Ago Today, Fletcher's Taught the Band to Play