The job interview from hell.

Imagine you're an accomplished prosecutor with anti-terrorism credentials. You think you could serve your country in the Department of Justice, and because of your unique experience, you get an interview with Monica Goodling.

Goodling is a graduate of Messiah College and got her law degree from Pat Robertson's Regent University. She worked with noted scumbag Tim Griffin in opposition research. For those who don't know what that is, I commend you for having a life. Opposition research is grown people spending their lives finding every little thing about a political opponent that they can then spin in a scuzzy direction.

Goodling, from what I can tell, never tried a case. But Alberto Gonzales put her in charge of hiring US Attorneys. Before we get to the questions she asked during the interviews, remember that it is illegal to hire attorneys based on their politics. Illegal. As in against the law. And Monica is a lawyer. So here are her job interview questions:

Tell us about your political philosophy.

There are different groups of conservatives, by way of example: Social Conservative, Fiscal Conservative, Law & Order Republican.

[W]hat is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?

Aside from the President, give us an example of someone currently or recently in public service who you admire.

Why are you a Republican?

When asked about her hiring practices by Congress last year, Monica read this statement:

I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions, and I may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions, and I regret those mistakes.

I don’t believe I intended to commit a crime.

So, that's the kind of law they teach at Regent University? It's OK to commit a crime if you didn't actually mean it?

I don't want to beat up on Monica Goodling. I do think she should be disbarred, at the very least, but really, do we honestly think she isn't a product of this administration?

Monica is just the most visible example of how the Bushies politicized everything, from the DoJ to important positions in Iraq's transition government. This is a culture that says government doesn't work and now watch us prove it.

My friend, Athenae, over at First Draft, wrote a terrific piece on this. In part she said:

Think about the basic, unifying principle of Republicans in government. It's that government sucks. It's that we are paying them to do something that they hate and don't want to do all that well. It's that we're supposed to be angry and disappointed with government, mad at it all the time, appalled by its shortcomings, and if we are, then we need to elect more of them so that they can fuck government's shit up on our behalf. They're not the problem, government is, it's the system. We need to burn it all down.

[snip]

So along comes a candidate who, like John Kerry and John Edwards before him, says government is about fixing shit and making your life less sucktastic, and the system isn't the problem, it's the screwups running it, and remember back before you thought everything had to suck in order to be cool? Wasn't it nice to actually want to do stuff instead of sitting around bitching about how nothing works and involvement is stupid? We can do that again. We can not suck, and go to the moon, and take care of your grandparents, and manage to do it all while smiling. Good Lord, is it any wonder crowds of people follow that around?

(The GOP's) basic tactic ... for staying in power, which is to make the very act of voting repulsive, naive and dumb, defensible only to save you from the utter destruction of a gay welfare marriage...

The piece is worth reading. Monica Goodling is a symptom of a much larger problem, and that is the anarchic impulses of today's modern Republican party.

And the next time you hear the phrase "a nation of laws, not men," think about all the lawyers Goodling hired, not because of their competence, but because of their politics.