Academic

Monica?s Revenge: Palin for Vice President

By Sherrilyn Ifill

     Until I read the New York Times? investigative piece exploring the governing style of Sarah Palin, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html , I couldn?t figure out why the Governor from Alaska seemed so familiar to me.  Now I know:  Sarah Palin is the new Monica Goodling.  You remember Monica — the lawyer with the thick mane of strawberry blonde hair, and the razor-thin resume installed as White House liaison in the Justice Department, where she wielded the power to hire and fire some of the most distinguished career attorneys in the most prestigious law department in the world.  Under Goodling, applicants to the DOJ were hired based principally on their views on abortion and gay marriage, rather than their legal acumen.  Career attorneys in the Civil Rights Division were denied key assignments and re-assigned to inferior work in favor of ?loyal Americans?:  read, Republican political appointees.  Even Republican U.S. attorneys were fired when they refused to take up politically-motivated and baseless ?voter fraud? cases or otherwise crossed Party orthodoxy. ?Loyal Bushies,? as she called the favored, went to the front of the line. As brilliantly described by Emily Bazelon at Slate, Goodling played the ?girl? card when called to account for her misdeeds before Congress — tearing up, trembling and disarming many of the hapless Senators, who didn?t want to be seen as beating up on a girl. http://www.slate.com/id/2165447/  Goodling defended the quality of her education at Messiah College and Regents Law School, and presented herself as an average, hard-working ?girl? with good intentions, who didn?t break the law ?on purpose.?  Just this past February, the Justice Department?s Inspector General?s office concluded that Ms. Goodling broke civil service laws and engaged in ?misconduct? while in office. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/28/ST2008072801270.html  (Naturally, she won?t be punished.  In fact, Goodling is now likely living in unrepentant wedded bliss with the founder of a leading conservative blog  http://www.abovethelaw.com/2008/02/breaking_monica_goodling_is_en_1.php ). 

            Enter Sarah Palin, the plucky, self-described hockey mom who attended four different colleges and served for 6 years as mayor of a town with a population 4 times that of my New York City high school and 18 months as Governor of Alaska. (None of which would be troubling if there were any evidence that prior to a fortnight ago she?d given any serious thought to how to govern and/or to solve the problems of this country).  According to The Times story, as mayor of Wasilla and later as Governor of Alaska, Palin also put chumminess and loyalty ahead of qualifications in many of her appointments — hiring grade school friends, and political supporters, and seeking to fire the town librarian and the local museum director for reasons that had nothing to do with their qualifications for the job, and everything to do with Palin?s conservative Christian views. Troopergate, the investigation into whether Palin fired the State Safety Director because he wouldn?t fire her state trooper brother-in-law (who?d threatened members of Palin?s family before Palin was elected to office), is at its core about whether Palin understands the concept of abuse of power.  Sarah?s got a mean streak too.  According to those in the know in Alaska, you?ve got to love her, or  . . . love her.  If not, you may be out of a job.  (Without question, Palin is considerably more assertive in public than Goodling.  She came out fighting after criticism of her record.  But she has yet to face the possibility of indictment, as Goodling feared when she appeared before Congress. Depending on the progress of the Troopergate investigation, Palin may yet go ?girl? on us).

            Like Goodling, Palin demonstrates a cavalier belief in her own competence. When Palin told Charlie Gibson in her first televised interview that she didn?t hesitate when McCain called to offer her a spot on the ticket, it may have been the most revealing ? and creepiest ? insight into the Governor we?ve learned to date. Like one DOJ official reportedly remarked about Monica Goodling?s meteoric rise at Justice, ?no job was too small for her,? and ?none was too large.?

This was the hallmark of the Bush Administration.  Spurred on by the ?success? of a marginally competent President, much of the Administration seemed to operate on the theory that preparation, experience and education were disqualifying attributes for a place in the government.  Whether it was Michael Brown at FEMA, or Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General (and who can forget the ill-fated nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court?), the Bush record is rife with the elevation of loyalists and sycophants with marginal talents to positions of tremendous authority.  Showing a contempt for the difficulties involved in managing departments with hundreds, sometimes thousands of employees, litigating tough cases based on complicated federal statutes, or advising the President on the nation?s obligations under international law, Bush?s appointees were favored for their loyalty to the President first and foremost.  Those who wouldn?t tow the line — who put integrity and excellence before the narrow, partisan desires of the Administration — were fired or marginalized.  The victims of the Administration?s incompetent appointees — whether victims of the Katrina disaster who died waiting for a competent federal response to the disaster, or tortured detainees, discrimination victims, or fired attorneys ? were just collateral damage to the Administration?s insecure and paranoid hiring practices and indefensible policies.

And so it was that Monica Goodling, a 6^th year law school graduate who?d never litigated a major (or perhaps any) case — was given the power to imperil the work and reputation of one of the most respected arms of the federal government, and to derail the careers of brilliant, experienced career attorneys in the Department of Justice.   Her politicized hiring of immigration judges has called into question the impartiality of some 40 judges on that court, and continues to have long-term consequences for the lives of potential deportees and their families, and for the efficient running of our immigration courts. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/washington/24judges.html

             Now Monica Goodling, in the form of Sarah Palin, is running for Vice President.  It?s unlikely that the McCain/Palin ticket will prevail in November (despite panic polling and pundit predictions).  But it?s troubling enough that at least half the country stands poised to give Monica Goodling a promotion.

ShareThis

Full post as published by BlackProf on September 14, 2008 (boomark / email).