{"id":13656,"date":"2007-11-20T09:20:49","date_gmt":"2007-11-20T14:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13656.html"},"modified":"2007-11-20T09:20:49","modified_gmt":"2007-11-20T14:20:49","slug":"prosecutor-with-performance-problem-out-in-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/prosecutor-with-performance-problem-out-in-minnesota\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor with performance problem out in Minnesota"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April, when U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Rachel Paulose was appointed, the controversy was almost immediate. First, her predecessor, Thomas Heffelfinger, resigned under suspicious circumstances. Second, Paulose, at 34 the nation’s youngest chief federal prosecutor, treated herself to an elaborate “coronation<\/a>,” complete with a Marine Corps honor guard and choir. Third, she clashed with her top three deputy prosecutors, all of whom resigned in frustration. (“They did it jointly because they couldn’t stand her anymore,” one source said, citing what was described as her “dictatorial management style and general lack of management experience.”)<\/p>\n

At the time, officials at the Justice Department blamed some kind of systemic prejudice <\/a>, though even then, it was a pretty weak defense<\/a>. Conditions went from bad to worse<\/a> in September, when an internal Justice Department audit showed that most of the staff in Paulose’s office said she mishandled classified information, retaliated against those who crossed her, and made racist remarks.<\/p>\n

The good news is, Paulose was forced to resign yesterday<\/a>. The bad news is, the Bush administration gave her a different job in the Justice Department.<\/p>\n

In an interview with a blogger last week, posted on National Review Online, the usually press-shy Paulose denied saying anything racist to the staff member and added that “the department is defending me against this outrageous and defamatory lie.” She also decried “the McCarthyite hysteria” that surrounded her.<\/p>\n

The brief interview provoked some of Paulose’s staff, according to her predecessor as Minnesota U.S. attorney, Thomas W. Heffelfinger. He said in an interview last night that “at least one and as many as three of her current staff managers either had resigned or were threatening to resign today.”<\/p>\n

Such defections would have been the second in Paulose’s office in less than a year. This spring, her top assistant and two other senior prosecutors stepped down from their management responsibilities, saying they no longer could work with her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When a U.S. Attorney’s staff keeps resigning in disgust, it’s usually not a good sign.<\/p>\n

What I don’t quite understand is why the Bush gang gave Paulose a golden parachute.
\n<\/p>\n

A Justice spokesman, Brian Roehrkasse, issued a statement saying: “We appreciate her service as U.S. Attorney, and are fortunate that the department will continue to be able to benefit from her exceptional legal skill in this new capacity.”<\/p>\n

In her new job, Paulose will be one of several counsels in Justice’s office for legal policy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, actually dismissing Paulose was out of the question.<\/p>\n

The only U.S. Attorneys who actually get fired in the Bush administration are the ones who perform well and exhibit independent thought.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Paulose was an unmistakable reminder of what had gone wrong with Alberto Gonzales’ approach to federal law enforcement. Her departure from her U.S. Attorney gig is a slightly encouraging sign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In April, when U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Rachel Paulose was appointed, the controversy was almost immediate. First, her predecessor, Thomas Heffelfinger, resigned under suspicious circumstances. Second, Paulose, at 34 the nation’s youngest chief federal prosecutor, treated herself to an elaborate “coronation,” complete with a Marine Corps honor guard and choir. Third, she clashed with her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}