Going through the Golden Duke Award nominations, I’m struck again by how much the U.S. Attorneys purge scandal brought together so many of the venalities of the Bush Administration.
Many of those corrupt tendencies had already been on display for some time, but there was at least one largely unseen aspect of the Bush modus operandi that was revealed by that scandal, and it shows up in the nominations we’ve received so far: the presence of young Bush flunkies throughout the government, and at some of its highest levels, whose inexperience was not a hindrance to their appointments but the very reason for it, willing pawns in the GOP’s politicization of the executive branch.
And so it is that many of our Golden Duke nominees come from this coterie of fresh-scrubbed cynics, including one of my favorites:
Iâd like to nominate Rachel Paulose in the Best Scandal Local Venue Category.
We have no royalty in the United States of America, but that didnât stop former United States Attorney Rachel Paulose from throwing herself a coronation at taxpayer expense, complete with a processional, a professional photographer, a color guard and a choir.
The circumstances of her hiring are still murky at best, Tom Heffelfinger was on the list to be fired, then he wasnât, but resigned anyway. Rachel was meant to be a USA PATRIOT Act appointment but received the support of local senator Norm Coleman and benefited from her friendship with Monica Goodling.
Shortly after, her top four assistants demoted themselves due to her overbearing, overly religious management style. Later there were formal complaints filed about how she treated employees, including allegations of bigotry that, along with mishandling classified information, resulted in a formal investigation by the Department of Justice. She was finally removed, less than two years into her âreignâ when a new crop of top assistants were threatening to resign.
The kicker for her nomination, though, has to be the defenders who claimed that she was forced from office because she was too aggressive pursuing human trafficking cases.
No doubt that the heretofore-unknown pro-human trafficking clique within the Justice Department was one of the great straw men of the year.
Who’s your favorite? Let us know. The deadline for nominations is Friday.
