Sometimes when I read tales of the Bush Administration, I think I’m accidentally reading McSweeney’s. Then I pause and check the domain and think – no, no, this is actually real. The stories emerging about Bradley J. Schlozman (Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, until 2005) are so jaw-gapingly ludicrous that I am actually rendered momentarily silent.

What he did was illegally discriminate against job applicants for legal positions who were liberal/seemed liberal, and tried to push out liberal/seemingly liberal attorneys and replace them with conservatives. He also arranged the hiring of less-qualified applicants if they were ideologically conservative. That’s bad. Dry, though. And abstract.

What does a guy who does this kind of thing sound like, though? What does the former Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, sound like.

I’m glad you asked. Here are some quotes from a man responsible for ensuring our civil rights, who is actually charged with enforcing our anti-discrimination laws.

• In one Jan. 30, 2004, e-mail, Schlozman declined a lunch invitation from a colleague, citing a previous commitment to interview “some lefty who we’ll never hire.” (ABC News)
• In a March 5, 2004, message, he referred to potential hires in another division of the department as “commies” and said that “as long as I’m here, adherents of Mao’s little red book need not apply.” (ABC News)
• February 2006 voicemail: “[W]hen we start asking, ‘What is your commitment to civil rights? … [H]ow do you prove that? Usually by membership in some crazy liberal organization or by some participation in some crazy cause ? Look, look at my resume — I didn’t have any demonstrated commitment, but I care about the issues. So, I mean, I just want to make sure we don’t start confining ourselves to, you know, politburo members because they happen to be a member of some, you know, psychopathic left-wing organization designed to overthrow the government.” (ABC News)
• [I]n an e-mail on July 15, 2003, to a former colleague, Schlozman wrote, “I too get to work with mold spores, but here in Civil Rights, we call them Voting Section attorneys.” (TPM)
• As part of the same e-mail exchange, on July 16, 2003, Schlozman wrote, “My tentative plans are to gerrymander all of those crazy libs rights out of the section.” (TPM)
• Appellate Section Chief Flynn told us that as early as 2004, when Schlozman was a DAAG with no supervisory responsibility for the Appellate Section, he often came to Flynn’s office to talk about the attorneys in the section. According to Flynn, Schlozman was very critical of the Appellate staff and commented to Flynn that many of the career attorneys in the Appellate Section were “disloyal,” “against us,” “not on the team,” and “treacherous.” Flynn said Schlozman stated on several occasions that when he “came into power,” he wanted to move those people out of the section to make way for “real Americans.” (The original DOJ report – pdf file)
• [Flynn's] notes also reflect that Schlozman stated that this was an opportunity to replace some poor attorneys and attorneys who were opposed to his “agenda” and to bring in some “real Americans.” (The original DOJ report – pdf file)
• “[The section attorney] is a pinko. So why is she leading this impt [important] case?” (The original DOJ report – pdf file)
• “If I recall correctly, [Voting Section attorney] is a crazy lib hans, am I right?” and “a detail would be a great way to get him out of our hair for 6 months.” (The original DOJ report – pdf file)

Here’s the thing. There honestly isn’t much to say about this. It is clear – time after time after time – that the people the Bush administration put into positions of power in the Department of Justice and elsewhere are worse than incompetent. They deliberately broke laws because they thought (and think) they knew (and know) better than the laws and the Constitution and then lied about it. And we let them keep going.

This is shameful.