Remember when then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey's Inspector General found that half a dozen officials in President Bush's Justice Department illegally rejected viable job candidates? The IG found that their criteria for dismissing candidates was that they had “liberal” backgrounds (members of the ACLU, Democrats on Campus, etc.).
Weeding out candidates because of political beliefs or affiliations at the federal level is a crime.
In this case, the perpetrators of the crime were religious conservatives. One of the perpetrators, Monica Goodling, graduated from Christian fundamentalist madrassa Regent University Law School (founded by Pat Robertson), and believed that her religion came first. Her responsibilities as a citizen of the U.S. was a secondary concern. Specifically, she believed she was doing the right thing because she was doing "God's work" (this mind-set forms the heart of the Dominionist movement in America, which argues that the Kingdom of God will be established here on earth through political and even military means). Her partner in crime, Kyle Sampson, is a "devout Mormon" who graduated from Brigham Young University.
Ignoring the evidenc laid out by the IG report, the Bush administration's Justice Department declined to press charges against Goodling, Sampson, and others who helped weed out perceived "liberal" candidates. The reasoning was clear: According to then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey, "not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime.”
So much for Republicans being the party of law and order.
According to Mukasey, because those who might have violated "federal and civil service law" had already suffered "substantial negative publicity" his office wouldn't act on the Inspector General's findings. It didn't matter that Goodling believed her responsibilities as a citizen of the U.S. didn't always fit into her religious beliefs. Respecting your duties as a U.S. citizen and protecting the Constitution is really no biggy, as long as you have God on your side.
No charges were ever filed against the perpetrators.
Got that? If you've got faith, and have already been persecuted in the court of public opinion, your duties as a citizen are optional, and you don't have to respect our laws. Screw citizenship. Screw the law. That is, of course, if the Attorney General will speak up for you and says "every violation of the law" isn't a crime.
I say let's bring back Michael "Laws-Are-Relative" Mukasey. If he can be convinced to revive his "every-violation-of-the-law-isn't-a-crime" doctrine almost every undocumented worker will find themselves in a new legal universe. More specfically, we should be able to do away with the "What part of 'illegal' don't you understand?" nonsense coming from the anti-immigrant crowd.
With a little faith, and a wink and a nod from the Attorney General, the path towards redemption and citizenship will be open.
See how that works?
With religion and faith trumping the laws of our land, and with the proper ideological blinders, virtually anything can be justified ... including flying a couple of planes into buildings.
- Mark
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