When DOJ Office of Public Affairs press harpy Tracy Schmaler tells Ryan Reilly of TPM Muckraker to jump, he asks how high. Today is no different now that TPM Muckraker is the vehicle for the politicized leak that Florida is going to be sued by DOJ because Florida is purging ineligible voters. TPM has the inside scoop from Schmaler that Florida is going to be sued.
This is disgraceful on so many levels.
Let’s start with the fact during the Bush administration, DOJ wouldn’t announce that a lawsuit was coming until it sent a notice letter to the target. They wouldn’t publicize the notice letter, generally, giving the target time to consider and possibly settle the matter. The Obama policy of leaking lawsuits to twenty-something bloggers shows the depths of politicized gamesmanship in which this DOJ is willing to engage.
Schmaler’s handling of the Office of Public Affairs reminds one Tracey Ullman’s out-of-place character in Small Time Crooks. Her talents are more suited to Tammany Hall, not the DOJ.
Second, this outrageous announcement has a top down feel. That is, the political people ordered a lawsuit and the career staff, like Elise Shore, are frantically drawing up the documents, looking for typos and pulling late nights to get it done.
Thirdly, Ryan Reilly and Charlie Savage have become the chief mouthpieces of the government, defending Holder and printing whatever needs to be printed. The politicization of their reporting is surpassed only by the politicization of the Justice Department.
January 2013 can’t come soon enough.
Starting in January, 2013, The Department of Justice is going to be cleaned out, making the current crop of apparatchiks unemployed. That will be from Holder on down, including the Civil Rights section and, yes, even the official press harpy.
Unfortunately, the career bureaucrats are protected by Civil Service laws that make it very difficult to clean house. In my more cynical moments, I recognize that the 537 (POTUS, VP plus Congress) elected politicians make up the Hollywood government. They’re there for show. The real US government is made up of the unelected, unaccountable and largely untouchable bureaucrats. They know that politicians come and go. When some politician tries to get uppidy with the bureaucrats, they either wait them out or set out to destroy them.
About the only way you’ll clean up the bureaucracy is to defund major sections of it causing the bureaucrats to no longer have jobs. Then, after sufficient time, you can see if any of them are missed and if any of the jobs need to be recreated.
Whoo, civil servants are so protected that we cannot change their status? I believe different. I think we can squash these bastards.
Cut the budget by XX% then use the usual LIFO rule to get rid of the latest hires, which would coincidently be all the Obama hires. So sad, but that’s only fair!
Yeah, what makes you think they’ll go quietly? I hate to think this, but given Obama’s behavior I would be surprised if they didn’t try something that involved the Supreme Court (or the new/old black panthers).
David W. – That would not shock me either, but the mood of the electorate is more overtly hostile than I can ever remeber before in my short 45 years, and with good reason. Americans are fed up with the outright contempt with which the ruling class elites holds us, the lowly unwashed commoners. November is going to be historic….now if we could just find some leaders with balls, instead of Boehner.
From the perspective of an additional 15 yrs amd websurfing daily since ’09:
1. Comments on political issues, large and small, reflect a massive change in attitude towards President Obama. Debaters/defenders/trolls for Obama jump into blog discussions on mainstream right-of-center blogs much less often, and get destroyed by logic and examples almost instantaneously.
2. Boehner has done pretty well, especially considering past Speakers. Wiser than Newt (and not craving the spotlight), he has the patience to stand aside and let Obama destroy himself. Even the slow pace on Contempt of Congress for AG Holder leaves the Dems no room to cry “railroading”, etc. He’s been strong for Ryan’s budget.
3. The next 6 months is going to be a perfect storm for the left. And very entertaining.
and websurfing
I believe I just read that Fla got the jump on them and is suing DHS in the District over the purging of voter rolls.
Let ‘em sue. They lose, they lose. They win, they lose in a different way.