A few months ago, the NYT reported on the breathtaking questions job applicants at the Justice Department were asked at the behest of Monica Goodling, the DoJ’s liaison to the White House. Goodling wouldn’t just isolate registered Democrats as inherently untrustworthy, she would also quiz applicants for civil service jobs with questions that several U.S. attorneys said were inappropriate, such as who was their favorite president and Supreme Court justice. One department official said an applicant was even asked, “Have you ever cheated on your wife?”
Goodling, with immunity from prosecution, later acknowledged that she broke the law with these questions — though she said she “didn’t mean to” — but we never actually got a full sense of just how many job applicants were subjected to these illegal political quizzes and how bad the questions actually got. That may soon change.
Yesterday we learned that the Justice Department’s Inspector General (the busiest man in the executive branch lately) has launched a probe into whether Alberto Gonzales lied under oath in his congressional testimony. As it turns out, the IG is also interested in learning more about the DoJ’s illegal hiring practices under Gonzales’ “leadership.”
Do you believe in God? Are you gay? Have you cheated on your spouse? What’s your position on abortion? Should gays be allowed to marry? Have you contributed to Republican candidates? What kind of conservative are you?
Welcome to Bush’s Department of Justice. Those are just some of the questions that investigators think may have been asked during interviews for both career and political positions at the Department over the past three years.
They come from a questionnaire (pdf) sent out from the Department’s inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility, the two offices conducting the joint investigation of politicization at the DoJ. The questionnaire (as reported yesterday by Bloomberg and The Washington Post) recently went out to an untold number of people who’d applied for spots at the DoJ. Investigators are trying to get a hold on how widely politicized the hiring process was at the Department.
To be sure, it’s not just Goodling. Investigators believe a variety of political appointees at Bush’s Justice Department applied illegal political standards to employment practices for several years.
Apparently, the questions applicants were subjected to were jaw-dropping.
The 12-page questionnaire has been distributed to hundreds of applicants who may have been asked about their political backgrounds as a basis for employment. Using the document obtained by the WaPo, Tim Grieve summarized the questions of interest to the Inspector General:
1. If you were interviewed [for a job at Justice], were you asked to fill out any forms prior to, during, or after your interview … that sought information about political party affiliation, voting history (candidates and parties), political campaign activities, financial or other forms of contributions made to political parties, or any other information about your political affiliations, activities or beliefs?”
2. Please indicate whether you were asked about the following topics during your interview (either directly or by implication), identify the person who asked the question, and to the best of your recollection state the specific question asked.
* your political party affiliation;
* your political activities, including for whom you voted and why;
* whether you made financial or other kinds of contributions to political parties;
* what kind of conservative you were (law and order; social; fiscal);
* your favorite president, legislator, public figure, or Supreme Court justice;
* your position on the death penalty;
* your position on the war on terror.3. Please indicate whether you were asked about the following topics during your interview (either directly or by implication), identify the person who asked the question, and to the best of your recollection state the specific question asked.
* your religious beliefs;
* your sexual orientation;
* whether you had committed adultery;
* your position on abortion;
* your position on same-sex marriage.
Un-be-lievable.