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  • Wednesday, May 30, 2007

    Vindicated... but too late.

    THIS is why I never applied for the Attorney Honors Program at the US DOJ.
    Justice Department investigators have again widened their probe of the firing of nine U.S. attorneys to include an examination of hiring practices in additional parts of the sprawling agency, including the troubled Civil Rights division and programs for beginning lawyers, officials said today....

    The joint probe also includes a look at the Attorney General's Honors Program and the department's Summer Law Intern Program, both of which recently have been returned to the supervision of career lawyers after five years of control by Justice political officials.
    Uh-huh. When I was graduating and looking for a federal job, I checked out the various Attorney Honors Program (most of them had been dismantled by this administration). I even made it to the final round at Transportation (but, obviously, wasn't offered a slot). But I never even applied to DOJ, much as I would have loved to have launched my career there, as reasonably competitive as my credentials were.

    Why? I had been warned by friends who had fled the Civil Rights Division not to bother, that my resume was pretty much stamped all over with "liberal" so it wouldn't be worth the effort to submit it for the program, that it wouldn't even get a cursory look, etc. So I didn't. My friends knew that the politicos were only considering applicants with the "right" credentials -- the more extreme right, the better.

    Absent the political bias, I don't know if I would have been accepted into the program because it is extremely competitive, but I do know that I missed my only opportunity to get into the Justice Department. They only hire newbie lawyers through their Honors Program. And that was too bad. I was disappointed not to have that opportunity.

    Shameful that there is such discrimination at the highest levels in the halls of the Department of Justice. I really hope this investigation brings the justice (not to mention integrity and respect for the law) back to the DOJ.

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