If the DoJ won't investigate possible politically-motivated prosecutions by the US Attorney's office, then whose job is it, and why should what amounts to a criminal investigation be done by the legislative branch? What are we paying the AG, and can we get a refund on that particular overpayment?

Not that it's likely any time soon.

Any takers?

Seriously--the Federal civil service is overwhelmingly Democratic; changing the Democrat/Republican ratio from 5/1 to 4/2 is hard for me to get upset about.

The trouble with counting the total for the whole DoJ is that all those Janitors who happen to be registered Democrats aren't taking decisions on who to prosecute.

Neither are the Janitors who are registered Republicans.

And add his response to the long list of "We have conducted an impartial internal investigation and have discovered that we're innocent of any wrongdoing".

We seem to be of different natures. For me, any hiring or firing of Civil Service employees on the basis of their political party affiliation, or enforcement of policies based on political ideology, rather than on the laws enacted by Congress, is very easy to get upset about.

Just to clarify: "wrong" in this case means not only morally wrong but illegal. There's a law against it. I can't at the moment recall the name of the law -- isn't it sweet, BTW, that here in the US we name our laws? -- but it exists, and everyone knows about it. So there's a very good reason to get upset about the DoJ refusing to look into or even at its own lawlessness.

Not surprised, though. Not at all.

If the Federal employees (Civil Service) are Career-Conditional, i.e. they're still "on probation," they can be fired. If they're Career, it is much harder.

Rather than go through the complicated procedure of firing the Career employee, they are usually given scut-work to do, and are for the most part ignored. They are not recommended for promotion, and depending on the office, they can be shunned. Result: MOST of these people go looking for another job.

Dave Bell @10: Most cleaning done at Federal buildings is contracted out, so the odds of the Janitor at DOJ being a Federal employee are very slim. This is one of the reasons most Federal agencies have locking file rooms and safes.

Don Fitch @12: In theory, political party is not supposed to be one of the criteria for hiring. I think there is a good possibility for a class action suit against the DOJ over the fact that the powers that be were choosing to employ only Republicans.

As many of you know, I am a Federal employee. In my 30 years as a civil servant I have seen only ONE employee fired -- she attacked a manager.

She actually held a meeting in a GSA facility about "how to help our REPUBLICAN cadidates during the up-coming election."

She became the head of GSA because she'd donated $200K to Bush's campaign. She had no experience.

Lizzy @15: There are actually two laws that cover this, the Civil Service Act and the Hatch Act.

The Hatch Act is the one that covers things like that meeting in a GSA facility about "how to help our REPUBLICAN cadidates during the up-coming election."

I know Lori knows this, but Lurita didn't seem to be aware of it. I suspect Rove and Cheney know it, but are betting they all can get away with it until after the time limit for prosecution expires (they are, unfortunately, right so far).

Every Federal employee takes three annual courses, Security Awarness,* Ethics, and The Hatch Act.

The rules are that everyone in every Department, up to and including the Secretary, has to complete them, and the format is such that completion of the courses is verified.

Doan did lose her job -- but anyone who can drop $200k as a political contribution probably didn't need it.

*Not just Computer Security, but protecting any personal information we might access during the performance of our duties. (With HHS that's SSNs and medical information.)

The political makeup of people who cannot make decisions that affect much are not useful statistically, but the affilitions of the political appointees who *do* make the decisions are. Your argument (such as it is) is about as valid as saying "The pentagon was built during a Democratic administration, end therefore the building is unsound."

Every year, scheduled by the wonderful computers somewhere else. And we have to either sign a log sheet if it's a group class, or send a copy of the completion notice to a higher-up, for the on-line review class.

How Doan snuck out of hers I don't know, but I'd bet there are others who did, too. Probably all politically-connected, too.

Many Federal employees may well be Democrats, although I suspect this depends strongly on the Department -- DoD tends to run heavily Republican, at least based on my admittedly-small-sample-biased experience.

Digressing to the question of janitorial staff: as far as I know, there are no Federal janitors; cleaning is considered "not inherently governmental", and is thus a contractor's position rather than an FTE. I don't know if attorneys at the SEC are contractors, but some lower-ranking positions can indeed be contract, which leaves the person in that job without the same benefits/protections as the folks who are FTEs. The difference between contract and FTE are legalistic, and it's all about keeping the government "smaller".

*The good political appointees -- and I'm sure there are some, around here someplace -- wouldn't disregard the laws and regulations that make the Federal Government go. FedRegs -- not just the law, but a way of life!

Oh, yes, we also get 'affiliate compliance' training, because we're part of a larger company where some parts are regulated and some are not. It's who we can and can't talk to, and what we can and can't talk about with them. Best summarized as "Don't".

And it just so happened that I did.

"Good girl, Ginger!"

"If it ain't wrote down, it ain't done!"

There once was a tutor of Tooting
Who loved to tutor the flute-ing
Though he sat at Miskatonic
The scales were diatonic
But the music was oddly neutering.

"What the...? Not only is the forest gone, but the mountains too!"

There once was a curate of Kew
who kept a small cat in a pew.
He taught it to speak
alphabetical Greek
but it never got further than "μ".

On the other hand, I am a little bit ψonic, and I may bake a π tonight, possibly while singing ρ, ρ, ρ your boat, but probably not.

Am I the only one who thinks ΡΡΡ should be a crew fraternity?

Dammit.

I θ you'd want π. This being greek, we should probably have λ for a main course. For a small φ, I'll bring a ν κ for you to wear.

My wife used to work with a vendor rep named Xenia; she and her boss earned major brownie points by being some of the few people other than Xenia's Greek coworkers who actually said her name correctly.