As if the images of United States President George W. Bush, the Bush administration, and the GOP could not be tarnished enough, a new audit shows that they can. Yes, their images could be tarnished further and broken into many small pieces because of this audit of the United States Department of Justice. At the same time, the United States Department of Justice could very well be rocked in what could be a potential scandal.
This recent finding could do even more damage to the GOP as it tries to fix its already shattered image. At time same time, this could possibly affect the 2008 US Presidential Election race between presumed GOP nominee Senator John McCain of Arizona and presumed Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.
The audit finds that the DOJ discriminated against applicants that leaned towards the left rather than the right. Politically liberal applicants were passed over. Instead, positions within the DOJ were given to applicants with roots and ties to the Republican Party. These Republican-rooted attorneys hired by the DOJ were rookies.
This audit was released on Tuesday, June 24 by the DOJ’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility. The process in which liberal and Democratic applicants were passed over was implemented back in 2002. It was about the same year as Bush was preparing to invade Iraq the following year in 2003.
Such improper and unethical screening of applications would dramatically spike upwards in 2006. There is an interesting coincidence due to the year of 2006. The audit concludes that qualified candidates were passed over in favor for candidates with political and ideological sidings with the Republican Party.
In a nutshell, it would not matter how qualified and experienced you were. If you were liberal and/or a Democrat, you would get passed over. If you were Republican, you would get hired no matter what your qualifications were. This is the implication of this newly released audit. That is the shot glass explanation of the audit’s findings.
Two former officials have been implicated, Mike Elston and Esther Slater McDonald for misconduct. The audit reveals that the two of them used MySpace to screen graduates for their political alignments.
Who said MySpace isn’t useful? It does make one weary on what information s/he puts on their MySpace page. Even if you don’t put much information onto your MySpace, it is still more than enough for something bad to happen.
It was not long after the audit was released that Democrats would quickly launch an offensive against the Bush administration.
With that said and done, one could expect the Department of Justice to undergo a shakeup this year. But, more audits are expected to be released this year.
This could have an affect on the US Presidential race between Obama and McCain. It is possible that this audit can be used as ammunition by the Obama campaign against McCain’s candidacy.
However, there are coincidences present in which this system was implemented in 2002 and the soaring use in 2006. In 2002, Bush was granted permission by US Congress to invade Iraq in 2003. In 2006, the GOP had lost control of both houses of Congress.
Of course this audit is going to do damage to the GOP. But, how much damage will this audit deal?
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