A feeding frenzy close to home
It's both painful and disquieting to watch a friend (United States Attorney Rachel Paulose) become the subject of a media feeding frenzy in a story with protagonists including acquaintances whom I like and respect (Assistant United States Attorneys Jim Lackner and Andy Dunne). The First Assistant and two division heads in the office of the United States Attorney for Minnesota headed by Rachel have resigned their supervisory positions to return to the line.
None of the three has publicly explained his resignation in his own name. The reportage quotes anonymous sources who may or may not include any of the three. Yesterday's New York Times recapped the story while yesterday's Star Tribune reported the most recent developments.
I know nothing about the story in addition to what has been reported in the newspapers. The Times puts this explanation at the top of its story:
Several of their associates described the action as a protest over what the three deputies regarded as Ms. Paulose’s ideologically driven and dictatorial managerial style.What does "dictatorial" mean in this context? The Times story buries this illuminating nugget in its conclusion:
Ms. Paulose’s defenders at Justice Department headquarters said the criticism of her was unwarranted. They said older lawyers had difficultly dealing with a young, aggressive woman who had tried to put into place policies important to Mr. Gonzales like programs to combat child exploitation.Reading the Times story carefully, I infer that Rachel has been attempting to enforce the prosecutorial priorities of the Bush administration at a moment when the administration's firing of eight United States Attorneys has been turned into a scandal of major proportions.Their associates said conflict had been steadily building since Ms. Paulose arrived as an interim prosecutor in early 2006. They said she had embraced the department’s policies with a single-minded zeal that cost her the confidence and trust of lawyers in her office.
For a sure guide to what the story isn't about, one can do no better than to turn to Nick Coleman, the Star Tribune columnist who has turned himself into a national embarrassment for the paper. In his column wildly indicting Rachel today, he performs the McCarthyite fantasia previously reserved by left-wing nuts for Bush administration Supreme Court nominees:
McClatchy also reported that Paulose is a member of the conservative Federalist Society, a tight-knit group of Republican and Libertarian lawyers driven by an ideological determination to remake the court system in their image. Paulose has not responded to media queries about her membership in the society. A spokesperson said last week that she didn't think Paulose belonged, but would ask; no answer was forthcoming. Paulose's own résumé, however, states that she has been a member since 2001.The Federalist Society! Ms. Paulose, are you now or have you ever been? How did the Times miss it? (For the moment let us pass over Coleman's assertion that the Federalist Society is "a tight-knit group of Republican and Libertarian lawyers driven by an ideological determination to remake the court system in their image." It's a necessary part of the fantasia.)
Coleman to the contrary notwithstanding, at Patterico WLS observes the following about Rachel's track record:
As the list of accomplishments below makes clear, she has spent almost NO TIME AT ALL serving in what one would call a “political” position....[S]he’s not a “political hack” aide of Gonzales who is rewarded for her political activites by being appointed to a job to which she had no connection. Heck, she only worked in a “political job” in the [Deputy Attorney General's] office for 2 months, so I really question the reporting that she is “best pals” with Monica Goodling.
What she has is a “Gold Plated” resume. If you think being a Yale Grad and Federalist Society member who worked for a year at Williams & Connelly in DC doesn’t open door for you at DOJ, then you don’t know anything about Washington, law schools, politics, and DOJ.
And, the same exact thing happened in the Clinton Admin. if you were a Yale Grad, ACLU/Alliance for Justice/People for the American Way/NOW member, who worked for Williams & Connelly, or Fried Frank, or Akin Gump, or Gibson Dunn, or a dozen other big DC Firms. There are former senior Justice Dept. officials at all those firms from Administrations stretching back to Carter and Nixon. It's an invaluable resource to draw upon for anyone that wants to seek an Administration appointment in DOJ or some other department.
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