Former Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, testify on Capitol Hill, March 2007.

Bud Cummins
Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, 2001-2006

For years, there have been allegations that the Department of Justice had made hiring decisions to fit a political agenda — which is illegal. Finally, this week comes confirmation from the department’s internal watchdog that several DOJ managers had done so. No surprise, really. But the story of how and why they were able to do it is remarkable.

When I made career hiring decisions as a U.S. attorney, I figured that the best way to make the president who appointed me look good was to hire the best people available. Apparently, the targets of this investigation showed favoritism to conservatives. They should have known better.

Certain to disappoint partisan opponents, there is no evidence that the practice was part of a larger conspiracy emanating from the president, Karl Rove, or the attorney general. I expect similar conclusions in the highly anticipated report on U.S. attorney firings.

The story is simple. Several political operatives worked hard on the campaign trail and then hung around long enough to be rewarded with jobs for which they were not ready. They lacked the experience, judgment and temperament for the positions they attained and the decisions that went with them. They were unsupervised by grown-ups. They screwed up.
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